"I told her that because you were irritated at Xie Tianque's meddling, you'd just grabbed a male classmate that was visiting to act as a shield. These are your 'lines'."
Ah! Yan Zheke, gasped and relaxed a bit. She could hear her heart pulsating nervously, and it seemed like her blood was about to rush out, bubbling up towards her face.
"Cousin! Couldn't you just have sent it as a single message? You've almost scared me to death!" She used characters to display how drained she felt.
Lin Que quickly replied,
"When I answered your mother's phone call, I felt the same way."
"So you'll also let me experience it?" Yan Zheke didn't know whether to laugh or cry. All she knew was that her Cousin's cold humor was more than what an ordinary person could stand.
"..." She used the ellipse to express her emotion.
Looking out for her, Lin Que said, "If your mother puts a lot of value on this, she may directly fly over to see you. You need to be sure that everyone around you is on the same page, so you shouldn't be intimate with Lou Cheng in places where other people can easily discover you."
"It really is possible..." Yan Zheke thought about her mom's disposition and way of doing things, and gasped in surprise. "Cousin, you really have a lot of experience in this area to be able to think of that!"
Lin Que responded to her with only two words,
"I'm smart."
Yan Zheke grinned and responded with lightning speed, "But I'm also not stupid! Every time we've taken an IQ test, my score's been higher than yours!"
"Love can make people stupid." Lin Que responded concisely, and then put his phone in his pocket.
"..." Yan Zheke restrained herself, as there all kinds of ways to deal with the situation turning over in her mind. She felt some fearful, some celebratory and some despondent.
A moment later, Lou Cheng had raised his spirits. He opened his eyes and stood up to practice his trick sets, starting to move his muscles and tendons to let them gradually enter their optimal state.
Looking at her boyfriend's delicate movements, Yan Zheke suddenly felt a small sense of melancholy.
Should I tell Cheng about this?
For two people to be together, the most important thing is to be candid and to communicate. Hiding this from him doesn't seem right...
But if I told him, he'd surely blame himself and believe that he hadn't been good enough. By suggesting going to Tiantong Taoist Temple on a date in the first place, this would also add to the feeling of it being a "forbidden love" and would make him uncomfortable in his heart...
While she hesitated and struggled, Lou Cheng finished warming up. Turning his head to look at her, concerned, he asked in a low voice, "Ke, what're you thinking about?"
Yan Zheke pressed down all of her emotions down to the lowest level, flashed a slight smile and said, "Thinking about your evil deeds!"
"What evil deeds? I'm a well behaved little boy." Lou Cheng laughed as he sat down next to her.
"You're getting more and more shameless, aren't you?" Yan Zheke laughed in a low voice.
Saying these words to Cheng, it's like my mood has turned around... In the past, I only concealed something from Mom and Dad and not lied to them, but now the first thing I was considering was to lie to them... Am I, am I not getting back on the right path...
After Lou Cheng bantered with Yan Zheke for a while, he found Lin Que had come. As he nodded his head in greeting, he unexpectedly sensed that the Brother-in-law wasn't quite the same compared to what he'd been in the past.
In the past, Lin Que had been taciturn, held everything inside, and had been grave and serious. But now, he had a greater sense of calm, peace, tranquility, and serenity!
"Has he accessed the borders of the Dan Stage?" Lou Cheng felt as if he had everything figured out and was already excited for his Brother-in-law. He had even more exciting ideas in mind, but he couldn't wait for him to widen the gap again!
As a fighter, how could it be possible not to have a fighting spirit such as this!
As he turned this idea around in his head, Geezer Shi got up and clapped his hands.
"Alright, let's get out there!"
"Go out and wait for your opponents!"
Lou Cheng and Yan Zheke, Sun Jian and others looked at each other, extending their hands, putting them together, and speaking in unison.
"We'll win!"
...
As they stepped out of the locker room, a deafening shout suddenly fell upon their ears.
"Songcheng University!"
All 2000 to 3000 voices melded together, created a resounding echo in the arena as if there was a storm inside.
Lou Cheng's body trembled in excitement, and then he heard a new rallying cry.
"Lou Cheng!"
"Lou Cheng... they all know my name?" Lou Cheng and Yan Zheke looked at each other, their hearts unable to not be overcome by the tide.
Immediately following, like a tsunami, came another cry.
"Come on, Lou Cheng!"
Out of all their classmates that had come to the Martial Arts Arena to observe the fights, as long as they had not been drug along, more or less all of them would have taken a look at the statistics beforehand. From a few rounds of the preliminaries, the results had been that a leading player, a pillar, or a no ranked expert with splendid fighting accomplishments, had unexpectedly been added to the Martial Arts Club. As a result, naturally they were unable to contain their rallying cries in this moment.
This year's Martial Arts Club was dramatic!
It didn't matter if it was the preliminaries or the University Martial Arts Club meeting in the next half year!
Lou Cheng's head started to itch as the voices fell upon his ears. It was impossible for him to be any happier. It was as if he'd taken a straight shot of adrenaline, and all he wanted to was to charge into the ring and go 300 rounds with Peng Chengguang.
He was willing to die for his friends!
He waved his hands reservedly, causing another surge of cries and even more warm welcomes.
It was similar to the feeling of being tipsy. He, Yan Zheke, and others sat down in the hosting team's seating area, and heard Geezer Shi say,
"Mingwei Martial Arts Club's order of heading out into the ring still hasn't changed. It's still Gao Rao in the lead, Zhang Ying second, and Peng Chengguang is taking the rear."
Gao Rao was an Amateur First Pin fighter, and Zhang Ying an Amateur Second Pin. Both of their boxing skills weren't bad, but the hindrance from the Jiuyang Punch was universal. There were also not any kinds of pressure chest movements or quick punch methods. The entire balance overall was mediocre.
Seeing the referee beckoning him from the other side, Sun Jian stood up and said to Lou Cheng with a smile,
"Today there's no need to be on edge or scared about not having a chance to get out on the floor..."
Finished speaking, he raised his fists, bumped them together, and took a step towards the ring.
At this time, since the big screen displayed the list of names, the martial arts arena once again erupted and chanted four new words.
"Sun Jian!"
"Come on!"
Sun Jian felt his blood rush up upon hearing this, and his adrenaline started flowing.
He instinctively recalled the phrase "kick his sorry ass" from the last competition, and that kind of feeling of challenging an evil monster. Thinking like this put him in the best state of mind, but some things could only come out under specific situations, circumstances, and conditions. Now, trying to attempt it again, the time had already passed and it was hard to make it reappear.
However, he was still more barbarous than before, had a better understanding of boxing, and his pace was faster. He'd already climbed over the stone steps.
On the other side, Gao Rao left his seat, followed the "brilliant road", and headed towards the ring. Arriving quickly at the stone steps, he couldn't help but turn his head and glance at his Elder Senior Brother, sitting upright and unflustered.
This time, I won't hold back! He braced himself and gnashed his teeth angrily.
In the three previous rounds of the competition, he'd failed in all three. No matter how prepared he had been when fought Dream Squad, he'd still lost to Feng Shaokun, and in his heart he blamed himself. He did not wish to become a burden to his Elder Senior Brother once again, and he wanted to break out for the first time!
Climbing onto the ring, Sun Jian and Gao Rao took their positions, and the referee said with a serious look on his face,
"The fourth round of the preliminaries, Songcheng University Martial Arts Club versus Mingwei Martial Arts Club."
"Round one, Sun Jian versus Gao Rao!"
"Three minutes of talk time starts now."
Gao Rao closed his eyes, adjusting his body and mind, intending to block out any words from his opponent.
Sun Jian himself was a soft-spoken type and came from a strict upbringing and his cultivation in dirty words would rank one of the last men in the Martial Arts Club. He was pleased to see his opponent choose to ignore him, and decided to take the best use of the time to think over his striking tactics.
Tick tock, tick tock. Time passed quickly. The referee raised his right hand, and then forcefully waved it down.
"Begin!"
Barely hearing what he'd said, but having prepared earlier, Sun Jian's thigh muscles tightened, and shot downwards. Using the energy to throw himself forward, he looked like a leopard pouncing on its prey.
Coming nearer, he turned his shoulder and threw out his right arm with the five fingers spread open, heading towards Gao Rao like a ferocious prey.
Flower-tearing and Willow-striking Hand!
Gao Rao was cautious and didn't give his opponent a chance to catch him. He leaned his body to the left, and with his right fist slammed across, blocking across his waist.
It was when Gao Rao had almost blocked Sun Jian's Flower-tearing and Willow-striking Hand, Sun Jian's left fist seemed to have already stored up energy for quite some time. His muscles expanded and his left fist quickly shot out like a viper leaping up towards Gao Rao's abdomen.
While his right hand grasped nothing, his left hand landed true!
This was the plan of attack that Sun Jian had planned for quite a few days before!
Gao Rao was in a difficult position. All he could do was retract his left arm, make a fist and hammer it down to block hurriedly.
Bang!
His block didn't have sufficient power, and he was hit to bounce back by Sun Jian's fist. Were it not for the fact he was able to pull back his underbelly in time, he was afraid he'd have been in an even more difficult position.
Sun Jian seized the opportunity to get a robust rebound. He plucked out his thigh, threw out his right foot with a crack, and launched into 24 Blizzard Strikes' Brutal Blizzard!
Seeing this, Peng Chengguang gasped.
"Little Rao's heart is too heavy. He wants to win so much that he's going to end up losing."
Facing the enemy to attack him head on was too conservative, which meant that he'd fallen right into the other move...
Zhang Ying, Qu Yu and Liu Wei listened in shock. It was evident that Elder Senior Brother wasn't merely talking about Gao Rao, but about himself and all the others.