Chapter 174: You Know Her
A new day, another new challenge.
That morning, Wang Heng arrived at the familiar martial arts hall, and as soon as he entered, he saw Ye Xun warming up by jumping rope.
Seeing him arrive, the young girl came over and said, “The ring is empty with no one using it. How about we go up and play around? It feels like it’s been a long time since we fought in the ring. Do you want to go up?”
Wang Heng thought for a moment.
Compared to one or two months ago, he felt that he had improved greatly now and wouldn’t be unable to last even two rounds like before.
Looking around… since it was still morning, the martial arts hall hadn’t officially opened yet, and there were no customers at all. Most of the apprentices staying at the hall had gone out for runs, leaving the surroundings empty with very few people around.
In other words, even if he got beaten badly, it wouldn’t be too embarrassing since hardly anyone could see.
So he nodded and said, “Sure, no problem. MMA rules?”
Ye Xun: “Any rules you like are fine.”
“Then MMA rules.”
After saying that, Wang Heng took off his jacket and shoes and socks, and began wrapping bandages around himself—he had practiced so many times that he was already accustomed to how to wrap the bandages.
After the bandages were done, it was time to put on the boxing gloves. Strictly speaking, MMA rules should use fingerless gloves, but since the two were just sparring for fun, there was no need to be too serious.
Ye Xun brought over a pair of ordinary boxing gloves and helped him put them on. Wang Heng had originally wanted to do this step himself, but Ye Xun’s movements for putting on the gloves were quite natural and skilled. Before he could even refuse, they were almost on.
Then, the young girl put on boxing gloves for herself as well, pulled open the ropes of the ring, and slipped inside.
Wang Heng followed behind her onto the ring. The two stood facing each other, a few steps apart.
Looking at the emptiness around them, Ye Xun said, “No need for audience or referee, that’s pretty good. Shall we start now?”
“Let’s start.”
Wang Heng got into stance, moving back and forth with small steps, slowly approaching the young girl…
Now he knew that in combat, you need to constantly change positions with these small steps to make it hard for the opponent to judge the distance. But in this process, you can’t jump—don’t leave the ground with both feet at once, at least not in the newbie stage. You have to maintain a state ready to exert force at any time, able to freely dodge forward, backward, or to the side—it’s a kind of flexible balance.
Ye Xun did the same, except her steps were even more subtle…
Suddenly, she pushed off with her right foot, landing a low sweep kick right on the side of Wang Heng’s calf.
Wang Heng gritted his teeth and didn’t cry out in pain—although it did hurt quite a bit, he had become more accustomed to this kind of pain now. And precisely because he was accustomed, he knew that as long as he prepared properly, Ye Xun’s low sweep kick couldn’t possibly KO him.
However, just as he endured the pain and prepared to counterattack, Ye Xun quickly withdrew her right foot and opened up some distance again.
This made it hard to counterattack.
Wang Heng licked his lips and continued to patiently look for an opportunity.
After a few seconds of standoff, Ye Xun tried the same move again with another low sweep kick. At the same time, Wang Heng stepped forward with a big stride, so her kick hit his leg before it was fully extended. Thus, the power was greatly reduced.
With the distance closed, it was perfect for punching.
Wang Heng threw an uppercut, about to hit the young girl’s abdomen, but subconsciously pulled back a lot of the force.
Although Ye Xun’s abs and vest line were very pretty, he couldn’t help but worry about the impact resistance of that area.
However, this punch didn’t land at all.
When the fist was still dozens of centimeters from her abdomen, Ye Xun had already grabbed his punching right arm, yanked hard, and wrapped her whole body onto him.
The next second, Ye Xun pulled Wang Heng to the ground, their bodies crossing horizontally and vertically in a cross shape as they lay down, Ye Xun on top and Wang Heng on bottom—a classic flying crossface.
As the jujutsu took shape, one of the young girl’s legs pressed on Wang Heng’s chest, the other on his neck, her two hands holding his right arm, locked between her legs.
Then, holding his locked arm, she slowly lay back, tightening her abdomen and thrusting her hips up.
This locked Wang Heng’s right arm completely with her whole body, applying force in the direction against the joint. Of course, Ye Xun didn’t really exert full force, or else it wouldn’t just risk ligament injury—it could even be dangerous enough to break his arm.
“Lost again.” Wang Heng sighed and patted her leg with his free left hand to signal surrender.
This leg looked white and slender, but when Wang Heng patted it, he found that when she exerted force, the muscle tensed up quite tough. The feel was completely different from other girls, almost like beef tendon.
Ye Xun released him, stood up, and smiled, “But the progress is very obvious. If your punch had been a bit faster, I wouldn’t have made it in time for the crossface.”
Saying something like ‘I just couldn’t bear to hit hard’ at a time like this would be too tasteless.
Wang Heng just said, “It’s fine, we’ll practice slowly. Also, your crossface really opened my eyes—from a standing position pulled to the ground and locked, it’s really the first time in actual combat.”
Ye Xun extended her hand to him: “Get up. Want to rest a bit before we start practicing again?”
“Sure.”
Wang Heng took her hand and stood up.
The two got off the ring and went to the area they were most accustomed to.
Then, Ye Xun took out her mobile phone from her bag and suddenly said, “Oh yeah, I recently discovered a great original singer. Want to listen together?”
“Sure.”
When he nodded in agreement, Wang Heng didn’t think much of it. But when that familiar piano intro started, he froze.
“I step onto a road in the desert,
See myself dusty in the mirror,
Hesitating silently at every dusk,
Light a candle for myself,
Sometimes recalling the past,
Only to find the way back is long gone,
All youth always betrayed,
Piece by piece, puzzle scattered into the sea…”
The ethereal young girl’s voice echoed in the empty martial arts hall.
Ye Xun sat by the wall, gently humming along with the singing voice playing from the mobile phone.
“How many thorns ahead I know clearly,
Busy like ants,
How much hope in the future I don’t know,
Can’t learn to be mature…”
Here, the chorus section ended, and the song entered the piano interlude.
Ye Xun looked at the boy beside her and said softly, “I like both the lyrics and the melody. I can single-loop this song while doing practice questions. What do you think?”
Facing the young girl’s gaze, Wang Heng contemplated a question. That was, should he reveal it now?
Since he had already let Han Yixuan and Lu Qi meet, introducing Ye Xun and Pei Ningle should also help make the asura field transparent, right?
The key was, unlike those two actors, both Ye Xun and Pei Ningle were relatively straightforward, especially Pei Ningle… so what would happen after introducing them?
Would they argue directly, or maintain a relatively harmonious friendship?
This would depend on his own operation—thinking of this, Wang Heng secretly steeled his determination.
Two minutes later, the song Lost came to its end.
Ye Xun smiled and asked, “How is it? Sounds great, right?”
Wang Heng said solemnly, “Pei Ningle’s song, of course it’s great.”
Ye Xun’s smile froze instantly: “You know her?”
————
Don’t say the lyrics are weak… original lyrics take the most brainpower.
