Going Home

Su Ziyang spent a month practicing the basics of the Spiritual Pivot Acupoint Striking Method while the three of them watched, munching on melon seeds.

The strength produced by the Great Heavenly Circulation was naturally beyond anything an ordinary person could match. After only a month of practice, Su Ziyang had mastered most of the Spiritual Pivot Acupoint Striking Method, and his skill at striking acupoints was already close to Jiang Tian's.

That made Jiang Tian, who had trained hard since childhood, extremely jealous.

As the saying went, there was no feast under heaven that did not come to an end.

Su Ziyang had learned the skills, and after a month of eating and staying there for free, master and disciple were feeling rather uncomfortable.

Mr. Mengfei had originally intended to leave a week ago, but Jiang Kui had kept persuading them to put it off, from today to tomorrow, then from tomorrow to the day after. The two of them had ended up staying a whole extra week.

Before parting, Jiang Tian and Su Ziyang exchanged contact information and agreed to spar again if they had the chance.

Mr. Mengfei said he had other things to do and would not travel with Su Ziyang.

Since the medical clinic's renovations were not yet finished, Su Ziyang set off alone by train, making his way home. After all, he had not been home for half a year since leaving to work.

"Driver, stop at the intersection up ahead!"

"Sure thing!"

Su Ziyang did not know why this kind of bus from the city to the county town had no stops, leaving passengers to rely entirely on shouting when they wanted to get off. As long as it was by the roadside, the bus would stop whenever asked!

Every time, Su Ziyang had to work himself up for a long while before gathering the courage to shout. The driver would always answer with a "Sure thing!" and then stop wherever he had asked.

Su Ziyang had not told his parents he was coming home, and by the time he arrived, it was already noon.

When Su Ziyang stood at the entrance to the courtyard, a black shape was the first to rush at him.

"Woof, woof, woof... urgh, urgh, urgh..."

"Heizi!" Su Ziyang scooped Heizi into his arms. Heizi wriggled his butt wildly and wagged his tail, his big red tongue swiping over Su Ziyang.

"Hahaha! You've gotten fat again!"

Su Ziyang hugged Heizi's head and vigorously ruffled him.

Heizi was a black Labrador Su Ziyang had picked up in a park. Su Ziyang had gone out to buy fried dough sticks that morning, and whether it was because they smelled too good or because man and dog were fated to meet, he did not know.

Heizi had followed Su Ziyang and refused to leave. Wiggling his little butt, he had followed him all the way home, then made himself a permanent fixture there. Su Ziyang's father was especially fond of small animals, but his mother thought shedding was unhygienic.

As a puppy, though, Xiaohei had been like a little ball of black fluff, simply too adorable. He had instantly won over Su Ziyang's mother, who had always opposed keeping a dog.

Hearing Heizi making a commotion outside, Su Ziyang's mother came out of the kitchen.

When she saw Su Ziyang holding Heizi, she was startled. "Oh!!! What brought you home?"

Su Ziyang told Heizi to go aside and stop making a fuss, then grinned. "Mom!"

"You've lost weight, you've lost weight!" Su Ziyang's mother frowned as she looked at him and patted him on the back.

"Hehe, Mom. Where's Dad?" Seeing his mother wearing an apron and seemingly washing dishes, Su Ziyang asked.

"What else would he be doing? Sitting in the room practicing his calligraphy!" When Su Ziyang asked about his father, his mother rolled her eyes at him. "You come home and it's 'Where's Dad? Where's Dad?' Can't you say a couple of words to me?"

"Hehe!" Su Ziyang chuckled. "Well, I didn't see Dad, did I?" With that, he headed inside.

His mother followed him in.

At the writing desk, Su Ziyang's father wore reading glasses as he carefully wielded his brush over a sheet of rice paper.

Su Ziyang did not disturb him. He stood quietly to the side, admiring his father's calligraphy. The little old man's writing had grown more and more beautiful over the past few years.

Just as his father, looking rather pleased with himself, shifted the brush from a side stroke to a centered stroke and made the final mark, a finger flicked the brush handle.

Scritch...

The brush instantly shot sideways, leaving a crooked black streak across the paper.

"Tsk-" Su Ziyang's father hissed, then glared. "Shoo, shoo, get out of here and stop bothering me! Look how well I was doing!!!"

"Look who's home?" The person who had flicked the brush was none other than Su Ziyang's mother. Ever since Su Ziyang could remember, his parents had played pranks on each other.

His mother would bother his father while he practiced calligraphy, and his father would deliberately water down her favorite cosmetics...

This time, Su Ziyang's father again thought his wife was bothering him, but when he heard her and looked back, he saw Su Ziyang's smiling face.

He hurriedly removed his reading glasses and put down his brush. "What are you doing home, you little brat?"

"Nothing much. I came back to see you! Your calligraphy's improved. You're almost better than me!" Su Ziyang pretended to examine his father's writing with a perfectly serious expression.

"You can't even draw a straight horizontal or vertical line, and here you are bragging! You haven't eaten, have you?!" His father patted him on the back.

"No, but I'm not hungry. I'll skip it." Su Ziyang waved his hand.

"How can you do that? Why don't you go out and get a bite?" Su Ziyang's father pulled a hundred yuan from his pocket.

"Well, well, well..." Su Ziyang's mother smacked her lips. "Old Su certainly knows what he's doing. His son comes home, and he starts buttering him up. Where did you get that hundred yuan?"

"What's it to you where I got it? My son's home. You think I'm still afraid of you?" Su Ziyang's father grabbed him and stuffed the hundred yuan into his pocket, then repeated smugly, "My son's home. You think I'm still afraid of you..."

Su Ziyang looked helplessly at his parents, who were still bickering like children despite their age.

"Dad, I'm really not hungry! I'll skip it. Let's eat together tonight!" Su Ziyang put the hundred yuan back in his father's pocket.

"Son, ignore him. Let him paint in here. Mom will go make you something tasty!" Su Ziyang's mother pulled him toward the kitchen.

"What tasty thing?" Su Ziyang wondered why his mother was so eager to cook this time. Although she had always done the cooking at home, his father was the better cook. Su Ziyang really could not believe his mother could make anything tasty!

Su Ziyang's father watched his wife eagerly pull him into the kitchen. Suddenly, he shot Su Ziyang a sympathetic look.

Su Ziyang looked on in puzzlement as his mother mysteriously took a packet of Liuzhou river snail rice noodles out of the cupboard.

"What do you think, son? Mom will cook you some river snail rice noodles. I'm telling you, they're really delicious. Sour and spicy..." Su Ziyang's mother looked at him proudly.

"Mom-" Su Ziyang was speechless.

"What? You won't even eat river snail rice noodles?" Su Ziyang's mother looked at his helpless expression. "I'm telling you, I wouldn't let your dad have any even if he wanted some. I've only got two packets left, and I can't bear to eat them."

"Keep them for yourself! I-I won't eat any..." Su Ziyang quickly waved his hands.

Su Ziyang knew about river snail rice noodles. In his words, the stuff reeked... There was no way he could put it in his mouth.

"Yes, yes, yes. Son, let your mother drink her stinky noodles by herself! Dad will take you out for mutton soup!" Su Ziyang's father had appeared in the kitchen at some point.

"Why are you everywhere?!!! Get out of here. I'm introducing our son to something good. I can't be bothered with you!" Su Ziyang's mother was about to open the packet.

Su Ziyang really was not hungry and had not wanted to eat in the first place. But seeing that his mother was about to cook him those strange river snail rice noodles, he resolutely ran out with his father to get mutton soup.

With Su Ziyang's mother shouting curses behind them, his father whisked him away from home on his little electric scooter.

The mutton soup shop was at the north end of town, and father and son rode slowly north on the little electric scooter.

"Have you been busy lately, Dad?" Su Ziyang's father ran his own clothing shop, selling clothes and making them to order.

"Ah, it's been all right lately. It's been all right this whole time. Plenty of people are having clothes made," Su Ziyang's father said. "What brought you home? Look how thin you've gotten. Nothing wrong out there, is there? Everything's going well?"

Su Ziyang smiled. "Of course it is! The clinic where I work is expanding and renovating. There's nothing for us to do, so they gave us time off, and we're still getting paid as usual. It's great!"

"Good. Do you have enough money to spend out there?" his father asked.

"Enough. Zijun found me a place over there. It's not expensive! It's pretty nice!" Li Zijun had visited Su Ziyang's home, and both his parents had met the young woman with the babyish voice.

"Son," Su Ziyang's father suddenly asked in a mysterious tone, "are you seeing anyone?"

The sudden question left Su Ziyang unsure what to say. "Huh?! No!"

"You're not still thinking about that Sixth Brother of yours, are you? Hahaha," his father teased.

"No. How could I be?" With a single remark from his father, Su Ziyang was pulled into his memories.

Sixth Brother was a nickname. She was Su Ziyang's first girlfriend.

The two of them had been together since graduating from high school. Su Ziyang's dear Sixth Brother had broken up with him at a crucial point in his preparations for the postgraduate entrance exam, because he could not keep her company. She had found a new love who could be with her every day.

Su Ziyang had been heartbroken at the time, but unable to show it, he could only force himself to hold it in. Three years had now passed, and he could hardly seem to remember what she looked like, but the things they had done together were still vivid in his mind.

This mutton soup shop, for instance: the two of them had come here several times almost every month.

As he drank the fragrant mutton soup from his bowl, a thin mist slowly formed on Su Ziyang's glasses.

A father knew his own son. Su Ziyang had to be terribly upset, and his father had not asked him about dating again since then.

Father and son drank their mutton soup in silence.

"Hey, son. I think Zijun's quite a catch. It's just that she talks like a child, which isn't so good!" The silent old father suddenly spoke up in delight, as though he had thought of something remarkable.

"Pfft-" Su Ziyang sprayed out a mouthful of mutton soup. "Dad, she's a Daoist. The kind who isn't allowed to get married!"

"So what? She can return to secular life. When she came to our house, I noticed her eyes were full of love when she looked at you. I've been through it, so I'm sure of it!"

Su Ziyang looked helplessly at his father as he spun his lavish tale... then drank his mutton soup one spoonful at a time...