After the period of initial shock had subsided for Wei Shi, he didn’t follow up with any other questions afterwards. Perhaps he felt like none of the questions which came to mind were appropriate to ask.
After that incident, Shen Xiao Shi didn’t turn up to work for several days. When I called him, he would reply saying that he was busy with the lawsuit, so he had requested a whole month’s leave to deal with it. His tone this time however was much more harmonious than the other day, when his words dripped venom like a declaration of war. He didn’t mention Wei Shi, nor did he reveal any intention to leave.
I asked him when the hearing would commence, and he replied that it was in two weeks. I calculated the date and told him I would be there.
He thanked me again as he said in a soft voice, “Feng Ge, sorry to inconvenience you like this.”
“What nonsense are you speaking now, there’s nothing to apologise for regarding this matter.” I knew it wasn’t easy for him to be shouldering everything alone, and so I added, “If you ever need help with anything, make sure to tell me. There is no such thing as making trouble or causing inconvenience between us two.”
Shen Xiao Shi said ‘en’ softly in response before proceeding to hang up the phone.
With it being a slow day at work, Shen Xiao Shi absent and being forbidden from going to see Sheng Min Ou, I honestly felt like there was nothing to do. Therefore, I checked the free times being offered and decided to go tonight to the best fight club in Qing Wan to check it out.
When I got there, I found the place to be truly remarkable, and it was both spacious and clean. There weren’t many people, however the club was well equipped.
After updating the membership profile information, the staff assigned me to a young coach with the surname Zhou, and also gave me equipment fit for a novice. In it were tops, pants, and two straps which were meant to be wrapped around the hands.
Different from the vibrant red colour of Sheng Min Ou’s straps, the ones handed out by the club to its members were very ordinary, a simple, plain white.
Coach Zhou was in his early thirties. He wasn’t tall, yet despite having more of a lean build he exuded power. He claimed to have practised boxing for ten years, and the dark complexion of his skin was from when he went to Southeast Asia to learn the martial art.
After getting changed, he took me to greet another female student.
“She’s called Zheng Mi Mi, and she’s attended three classes more than you.” He said, as he introduced us two.
Seeing her, I wasn’t sure whether the girl named ‘Zheng Mi Mi’ was of legal adult age or not. She appeared especially small, and she kept her hair tied in a ponytail, with dimples appearing on the sides of her face whenever she laughed. Her youth radiated off her in waves as if she were the dazzling sun perched high up the sky at noon, at the time when it was the most bright and beautiful.
“Finally, there’s a starter who commenced later than me.” Zheng Mi Mi shook my hand, her ponytail syncopating with the rhythm of her head as she spun around to glance at me.
“Lu Feng.” I said, introducing myself, “Nice to meet you.”
“Just refer to me as ‘shi jie’.”
I was taken aback by her words for a second, “Shi jie?”
“Yeah, that’s how we refer to each other here, it’s based on the order of when you join.” She stood akimbo, her skin uncovered by her sports vest glistening in sweat.
I glanced at Coach Zhou, however the other party merely just smiled at me, with an expression that translated to ‘she’s just a young girl, I can’t do anything either.’
I had no choice but to give in as I responded, “All right, little shi jie .”
“Yeah!” Zheng Mi Mi exclaimed, jumping happily on the spot, her cheerful remarks like the twittering of a delighted little sparrow.
Coach Zhou clapped his hands together, signalling for us to quieten down, then began to run us through the basic movements.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Olxf atlr, gjlrf sbeg jgwr ab atf rlvfr bo sbeg tfjv ab qgbafma ogbw ifoa jcv gluta raglxfr, yfcv sbeg xcffr rilutais, gfwfwyfg ab gfwjlc oifzlyif…”
Lf vfwbcragjafv atf wbnfwfcar bo raglxlcu klat atf olra olgra, atfc ifa Itfcu Zl Zl jcv P jaafwqa la ijafg. Coafgkjgvr, tf kbeiv mbwf ab mbggfma er ybat bc beg afmtcldef.
We followed this routine for half an hour, and I found that my body actually started to sweat as well.
Zheng Mi Mi practised her jab as she suddenly asked: “Coach, when will our Shi Xiong arrive?”
“Shi Xiong?” Coach Zhou corrected my posture and furrowed his brows in response to Zheng Mi Mi’s question, “Oh, you meant Mr Sheng? He mentioned that he would be coming today. Don’t call him Shi Xiong though, it’s a bit embarrassing, he’s already an expert at this, and he doesn’t need me to teach him at all. Actually, I’d rather him accept me as a pupil.”
“He’s finally going to turn up? Awesome!” Zheng Mi Mi was excited, her cheeks even slightly flushed, “Due to our backgrounds earlier I wasn’t able to like him, but now it’s different. He’s single and so am I, so now I can finally unabashedly declare my love to him!”
She really had no reservation towards vehemently hating and loving someone, and she was at the age where she could valiantly charge ahead in pursuit of her love. Looking at her reminded me of seeing myself from years ago, as I inexplicably came to the conclusion that this girl was quite likeable afterall.
I asked her, “What was your background before?”
Zheng Mi Mi did not shy away from my question in the slightest as she replied, “He was my cousin’s fiancé. Although my cousin kept claiming that he was abnormal in some ways, I still think he’s super cool. He’s different from the boys my age who are currently chasing me, in comparison to them he’s charismatic and mature.”
Coach Zhou had his back turned towards her, and on his face was a subtle expression, like he was attempting with great restraint to withstand the urge to throw up.
“Oh, so he pretty much would have been your cousin’s husband.”
That was alright, it wasn’t a particularly taboo relationship or anything.
After directing a few more questions at her, I found out that Zheng Mi Mi was just 20 years old this year and had been studying abroad before. After she had heard that her cousin and her cousin-in-law had broken up, she specifically rushed back from thousands of miles away to swoop in for her chance. However, since then the two have only seen each other once, and the other party didn’t seem to have recognized her at all.
“The path of chasing an unrequited love is not easy. It’s an arduous task and the path is long. Little shi jie, take your time on your pursuit…”
Coach Zhou took a phone call and left for a while, leaving me and Zheng Mi Mi to stretch as we helped each other with it. Zheng Mi Mi had practiced dancing before, so this was essentially childs play to her. When she sat with her legs extended straight out, her fingertips could easily touch the soles of her feet.
When it was my turn though, I realised that this simple action was really going to be the end of me.
“Your tendons… why are they so tight?” Zheng Mi Mi pressed down on my shoulder so I could reach further as she spoke through gritted teeth, “You’re so hard!”
I was holding my breath in and almost let it all out, “Little shi jie, please be more careful with your words… oh shit, it’s getting pretty intense… wait, wait, hold up, I can’t do this anymore….”
Zheng Mi Mi leaned her whole body weight on me as she pressed on,”No, this won’t do. We need to hold this for another ten seconds, your tendons need to be stretched out properly.”
After that, she began the count down for me. It was probably the slowest ten seconds I had ever experienced in my life. When she had counted down to five, I felt as if one minute had already passed.
When she finally reached “One”, the weight crushing down upon me suddenly vanished, as I immediately straightened up and gasped for breath, before collapsing to one side as I laid on the ground.
“Ah! My cousin’s ex-fiance is here!” Zheng Mi Mi exclaimed as her voice suddenly dropped to a hush, “Quick, look at him, isn’t he handsome, isn’t he cool?”
I propped my face up on my elbows, as I raised my head and followed the direction of her gaze. My eyes were drawn to the salient feature, the striking red straps tied on the other person’s hands, followed by their face, features so viscerally handsome and appealing.
Sheng Min Ou skillfully tied the straps to his palms, pulled up the ropes which boxed the ring and slid in through the gap he had created. Coach Zhou followed behind him, wearing targets to strike at on both his hands.
Though all marriages came to be through a line of fate, to meet Sheng Min Ou like this was truly unexpected.
Zheng Mi Mi said he had been her cousin’s fiancé, so then, wouldn’t that make her Xiao Mo Yu’s cousin?
I knew Qing Wan wasn’t big, but I didn’t expect it to be this small.
I felt like laughing at this situation from the depths of my heart, as I sat up, directing a scorching glance at him, the smile on my lips remaining there for a long time.
Sheng Min Ou felt my gaze, and when he looked at me, he paused, and his eyes narrowing slightly.
I knew how he felt, I was also shocked by how things had turned out.
This wasn’t something that I had had forced to happen, it was honestly the heavens insisting on bringing us together this time.
I smiled at him as I raised my brow slightly and directed an amorous gaze over.
“Ah, he’s looking at me, he’s looking at me!” Zheng Mi Mi was overcome with excitement as she waved to Sheng Min Ou. Her behaviour was like a fan who was clearly overjoyed from being able to see their idol, but pretended to appear calm on the outside so they wouldn’t scare the other party away.
Sheng Min Ou glanced at her without giving her any response, as he lifted his chin towards Coach Zhou and started his own training.
This was the first time I had seen him boxing. Although in this regard I was only a beginner, however from the speed of his punches and the power of his kicks, I could see that Coach Zhou meant what he said when he said that Sheng Min Ou was a master of his own right.
“Wow, even his sweat shines like glistening beads, how beautiful.” Zheng Mi Mi pressed her hands on her chest and as she looked intoxicated from the scene in front of her, “How can he be so perfect! I want to raise the target for him…”
Sheng Min Ou landed a kick dead in the middle of the target, resulting in Coach Zhou shuffling backwards, attempting to displace the forceful blow landed on him. He crashed onto the floor, the fall eliciting a grimace from him as he reorientated himself.
Zheng Mi Mi sucked in a breath as she quickly corrected herself, “Nevermind, it must be painful to be beaten by him.”
Indeed, it was extraordinarily painful.
I stood up and declared, “Alright, let’s keep going.”
After training had concluded, I was covered in sweat and probably stunk, so I intended to rush off to take a shower. However, Zheng Mi Mi held me back and demonstrated the proper method on how to tie the hand straps.
Though this little shi jie could be categorised as my ‘rival in love’ in a certain sense, she really was someone with a great character.
“That’s not it, that’s wrong.” She held my hand as she demonstrated, “you want to twist it so that it wraps around like this. See, this is how you do it, now you give it a try.”
I followed her instructions and attempted it myself, finding it pretty easy to do.
“Right, thanks little shi jie. I’ll be heading now, catch you next time.” I waved my hand as I parted ways from her, and from my peripheral vision I caught a glimpse of Sheng Min Ou still remaining on the stage, as I had no idea when he was planning to leave.
After taking my shower, my exhaustion was washed away by the hot water. I wrapped my lower body with a bath towel, as I wiped my hair and walked away from the showers.
I moved to open the storage cabinet, and a sliver of a gap had just appeared when suddenly an arm brusquely brushed by me and slammed against the locker, as it was pushed shut again.
I felt waves of an aura that was oppressing to be in proximity to, as the other person was almost pressed against me, their scorching body heat radiating off them. It seemed to be even higher than my body temperature even though I had just taken a shower.
“You’ve been stalking me again.”
The heavens and the earth could both bear witness to my innocence, whoever followed him would be a puppy.
Actually, wait a minute, little shi jie probably did stalk him though, otherwise she couldn’t have known that he was boxing here.
Little shi jie, sorry it had to be this way.
He and I still had our three agreements which I was obliged to follow. Given that I couldn’t speak, I could only shake my head in response.
“We agreed that all terms were binding for a month, however you couldn’t even follow it for a week.” He lowered his body, leaning down as his breath softly caressed my ear.
I shivered uncontrollably, as I moved forward and purposefully hit my head against the metal cabinet door, attempting to regain my composure and calm in this way, as well as conveniently creating some more distance between myself and him.
“There exists men, and women, it’s not like I’m the only one for you. Why must you insist on unrelentingly associating yourself with me?” The hand which pressed against the locker drew back, as it brushed against the top of my head, frissons running all the way down my neck.
It was strange. My body was so undeniably heated, however the temperature of his hand wasn’t nearly as warm. When his fingers snaked around my neck, it felt even cold to the touch. It was to the extent that I was taken aback by the temperature difference, and couldn’t help it as a vague moan which was stuck in my throat escaped me.
He pressed his forehead against the locker, his piercing gaze directed downwards. When I found that my legs were trembling slightly, even I chastised and berated myself internally.
Only this much had happened, and you’re already weak? Lu Feng, you’re really way too useless!
“It’s like you said… for me there’s only you.” I gritted my teeth as I spoke my first words to him tonight.
I didn’t know how he surmised that I was okay with both men and women, but he really was mistaking me. I was honestly only interested in him.
His grip on the back of my neck tightened, and I heard him let out a sound like a sneer, full of disbelief and mockery.
“Oh.”
His hand around my neck lifted, however as a consequence he pressed even closer towards me. His lips hovered right next to my ears, as if he was planning to say something. The scent of sweat mixed with the aroma of the shower gel I had used, as the combined scent stirred up fatal hormones, which tugged at my soul. However, it was precisely at this moment when sounds arose from outside the changerooms, signalling that people were about to come in.
He could only move apart, without saying another word as he left.
I maintained my position there for a long time, until the heat in my body subsided. It was then that I turned my head, and by then, naturally there was no one behind me.
After I finished changing my clothes, I waited in place for a while again, but Sheng Min Ou never came back.
With a sigh, I got up and carrying slight regret with me, I left the club.
Thanks for the chapter ♥️♥️
See, the Heavens (the author) are on Lu Feng’s side. Can’t you give it a bit of a rest, SMO?
Thanks for the chapterrs!!
😳
How can I buy the raws? I’m dying to mtl this novel but can’t manage to buy it on that website.. 🙁
Thank you for the chapter 💕
Man, what $hitty dog luck! 😝
The ironic thing is Lu feng hasn’t really stalked him??? It’s mostly been coincidences that have caused him to run into sheng min ou lol