CH 33

“Hey… wake up!”

Gu Xia was woken up by a sweet voice. He opened his eyes and saw a delicate-looking girl looking at him, ‘Eh! Isn’t this Xu Mengying?’

“Why are you sleeping here?” Xu Mengying asked.

“Oh, I was thinking about whether there is a suitable club, and I wanted to join one, but after looking at a few, I didn’t see a suitable one. Plus there were too many people, so I fell asleep here.” Gu Xia rubbed his eyes and said with a wry smile.

Xu Mengying sat down beside Gu Xia, blinked and said, “Oh… what type of club do you want to join? I know these clubs well, so I can give you some advice.”

“Well~ I’m not very interested in literature, but I’m more interested in Taekwondo. I want to learn some self-defense techniques. But Taekwondo is foreign, so I don’t really want to learn it.” Gu Xia thought for a while, pondered over it.

“To put it bluntly, you just want to learn some martial arts! But you need to pay a fee to join these clubs. For example, Taekwondo requires a membership fee of 3,000, and Sanda clubs require a membership fee of 2,000.” Xu Mengying analyzed the situation for him.

“They might as well go rob people.” Gu Xia curled his lips and expressed his opinion. 3,000 was a significant amount for him at the moment. Unless there is inflation in the future, when currency becomes worthless, you can buy a lot of things with 3,000 in this time period.

“You don’t know anything. Martial arts clubs need a lot of money to operate. The equipment you will be using for practice is very expensive. It is impossible for clubs or the university to pay for this money, and clubs often hold competitions and other activities which also need money. So they have to collect money, otherwise who will be responsible for the money?” Xu Mengying explained.

“Forget it! I might as well keep this money to myself if I have it.” Gu Xia shook his head and decided. Spending two or three thousand just to join a club, Gu Xia couldn’t do it.

“Actually, there is a club that also practices martial arts. The fee is also low, only 500 yuan. Do you want to go?” Xu Mengying hesitated and said.

“Oh! What club? Only 500? The others are two or three thousand yuan.” Gu Xia wondered.

“The university also has a martial arts club, which was established when the university was founded, but the requirements were very high at that time, so there were not many people who could join, and almost no one knows about it now.” Xu Mengying said.

“Martial arts club? Established for more than 100 years? What are the requirements that will make a martial arts club with such a profound background fall to the point where no one even knows about it?” Gu Xia asked.

“I won’t say that here. If you want to join, I can take you to the assessment, and you will know when the time comes.” Xu Mengying pursed her lips and said.

Gu Xia couldn’t help but be a little interested in this club with a history of more than 100 years. Why wasn’t it that well known if it existed more than 100 years ago? It was still during the period of the Republic of China when the warlords were fighting. He had heard that there were many strange people and strange things in China at that time. Gu Xia heard from his grandfather’s generation that there were real martial art masters at that time. Things like Taijiquan, Baguazhang, Bajiquan, etc. all existed at that time.

“Let’s go! Take me to try it out, I heard you say that the requirements are very high, I’m sure I won’t be able to pass, but I want to go see it at least.” Gu Xia smiled.

“Okay… come with me!” Xu Mengying nodded and smiled.

“Hey! How do you know about this club?” Gu Xia couldn’t help asking.

“This…you’ll find out later.”

Xu Mengying didn’t say it clearly, and Gu Xia didn’t ask much. Anyway, as she said, he’ll find out later anyways.

Gu Xia followed Xu Mengying all the way to the depths of the university. This area was filled with trees and looked like a dense forest. Gu Xia has not been here before, and could not help but wonder, ‘Is the martial arts club really here?’ Gu Xia was not afraid that Xu Mengying would deceive him, and she had nothing to gain from doing that.

As they walked out of the woods, he saw an old three-story building in front of him. There was a lot of practice equipment and even wooden poles placed under the building. These equipment revealed traces of time and seemed to be here for a long time.

Xu Mengying looked at Gu Xia’s expression, smiled, and then walked into the courtyard first.

Gu Xia also followed behind her with his heart filled with doubts.

“Little girl, why are you here? Oh, you brought someone with you!?”

A voice full of energy came from the building. This voice was that of an old man, but it was exceptionally loud.

Gu Xia couldn’t help but look into the house with some doubts, and saw an old man jumping down from the roof of the third floor.

“Hehe…”

Xu Mengying covered her mouth and smiled.

The old man fell, and immediately a burst of dust rose on the ground, but he was standing there unscathed. (G: WTF! We have superhumans now?)

Gu Xia was stunned. That was the third floor! And it was the third floor of an old-fashioned building, with an average of 4 meters per floor, and the third floor was about 12 meters high!

Was this man even human? He was unscathed even jumping down from that height, Gu Xia couldn’t help but doubt that if he was dreaming? Was he still sleeping under the tree and didn’t wake up?

“Boy, don’t worry about this old man, I will still live for a few more years.” The old man said with a smile.

The old man’s name was Xu Fan, and he was wearing a black robe. Yes, it was the kind of robe you’d see in those long-distance running events in the Republic of Ch*na period on TV. His beard and hair were all white as well.

“Grandpa, Gu Xia wants to join the martial arts club, so I brought him over to try it out.” Xu Mengying ran over and pulled the old man’s arm.

“This kid? This kid is so thin and he wants to practice martial arts? I can kill several kids like him with one palm.” Xu Fan glanced at Gu Xia and said with disgust.

Gu Xia really wanted to say, ‘What’s wrong with me being thin? You’re not so different yourself!’

But after thinking that there was a possibility of being beaten to death, he decided against it.

“Grandpa, let him try! You see as well that there is no one in this martial arts club. It’s desolate and empty. You are here alone all day, and don’t forget the competition at the end of the year. Are you sure you still won’t participate and bring shame to the club?” Xu Mengying whispered in her grandfather’s ear.

Xu Fan’s expression changed, he pondered for a while, and said to Gu Xia, “Boy, come with me!”

Gu Xia looked at Xu Mengying and saw Xu Mengying nodding at him and motioning him to follow. So, Gu Xia followed behind the old man.

After entering the building, he noticed that it had a very large interior, and there was no partition. It was just a big room with some wooden poles and equipment, but it was much newer.

“Come here, I’ll check your bones to see if you’re suitable for martial arts.” Elder Xu Fan said.

Gu Xia was stunned when he heard the words, it really was the same as on TV! 

‘Did he really say he wanted to check my bone?’

Gu Xia walked up to the old man, and the old man Xu Fan slapped his joints with his hands constantly, and his speed was so fast that Gu Xia couldn’t see his hands clearly.

“Okay…” Xu Fan seemed to be very tired, and his forehead was covered in sweat.

“Quality is okay, but martial arts requires a lot of money, boy, do you have money?” Xu Fan gave him a sideways look.

In fact, he didn’t want to accept Gu Xia either. But, he really had no choice. His line was passed on to him, and he was very powerful. His son and grandson could not live up to his expectations, and their martial arts were sparse and mediocre. There was an exchange meeting every year, where each lineage would send their younger generation to compete. 

The younger generation here referred to those under the age of 30, because those who practiced martial arts were not regarded as the younger generation when they were over 30 years old. This competition was related to the reputation of each line, and the line of the Xu family had lost for four years since Xu Fan was 30 years old. And now, even if he was 70 years old, his son and grandson would be beaten up by him a lot.

Moreover, it was not easy to find a person with good qualifications. Nowadays, people may eat and drink well, but their physique is not that good. This was why everyone was in a state of only pseudo-fitness.

“Money? I don’t have much money. Does it cost a lot of money to practice martial arts?” Gu Xia shook his head and said.

“In ancient times, there was a saying that the poor study and the rich practice martial arts. Because martial arts require money. Practicing martial arts will damage the body, so it needs the assistance of medicinal materials to recover. If there is no medicinal material to help, it will ruin one’s own training. You may have seen people on the Internet who practice Iron Sand Palm. These have trained for so long that their hands became like the hands of a dead person due to the accumulated injury. But, people who have really practiced the authentic Iron Sand Palms have hands like ordinary people. It’s because they have healed their injury.” Xu Fan explained.

Gu Xia’s heart was itching to learn it, but when he thought of having no money, he couldn’t help but feel sad. He had no money in his past life and it was the same in his present life! 

Currently herbal medicine was very expensive, so he didn’t even need to think about it to know why practicing martial arts was so expensive.

“I can tell at a glance that you have no money, but that doesn’t matter! You have to come here at 4 o’clock every morning from tomorrow, and I will teach you for two days to see how your ability to comprehend. If it is good, this old man will bear the expenses for the herbal medicine.” Xu Fan said.

“Thank you old man!” Gu Xia hurriedly thanked him.

“Why are you not calling him master, why do you still keep calling him old man?” Xu Mengying reminded him.

“Master!”

“Good. You can leave for now!” Xu Fan waved his hand.

“Then I’ll be leaving first, Master.” Gu Xia nodded.

“Grandpa, I’m leaving too, bye!”

*****

“Is he your grandfather? Then you also know martial arts?” Gu Xia looked at Xu Mengying and asked.

“Of course, just like him, I can easily beat up three or five people casually.” Xu Mengying said proudly.

“Then, your grandfather should have a high position in this university? Or else the university wouldn’t have given him such a big place.” Gu Xia asked with a smile.

“It’s okay! He is the honorary vice-principal of this school.” Xu Mengying said.

“Fu*k! Is being the vice-principal something normal? Your family is really influential.” Gu Xia complained.

When he returned to the dormitory, it was already 3 pm. Gu Xia missed his lunch because he slept, but he was not very hungry, so he simply skipped lunch and waited for dinner.

There were two reasons behind Gu Xia’s decision to practice martial arts with Xu Fan. The first was for his own self-defense. As for the second reason, is there a man who has no dreams of being a martial artist? Why did Bruce Lee become the spiritual leader of the whole country? It was not only because of his influence, but also because of his martial arts. When Gu Xia was young, like many kids, he watched many martial arts movies on TV. So why wouldn’t he yearn for it?

He didn’t have the chance to do it before, but now he had the opportunity to learn it. So, if he didn’t learn it, he would be a fool. Obviously, Gu Xia was not a fool.

If he learned martial arts well, he could protect his family. Although people say that the current public order was quite good. But was that really the case? Who knows what he would encounter in his daily life? Just like it says in the newspapers, he could be just walking on the road, and be stabbed to death by a lunatic with a knife, or encounter some hooligans. So he had to make sure that he could protect himself.

Today’s events had opened a new door for Gu Xia, a door that had never been touched before. Gu Xia believed that behind this door was something very exciting.

‘Sisi, just wait, next time we meet, I will definitely surprise you.’