It was late when they left Zhang Sen’s place. Xia Lei and Liang Si-Yao had had quite a bit to drink. Xia Lei was a little better and could just barely drive but Liang Si-Yao was dead drunk and unsteady on her feet. Xia Lei had to help her into the car.

Xia Lei drove his car out of the villa and stopped before he entered the main road. He wanted to rest for a bit and drive only after his face lost its redness. The traffic police would flag him down for drink-driving for sure if he drove in the city with a red face. One test and his driving license would be gone.

Liang Si-Yao slumped bonelessly in the passenger seat, her face and neck flushed with alcohol. Her pair of beautiful legs extended from the office skirt, the stockings encasing them like a second skin; she looked peaceful, beautiful.

Xia Lei looked at her and she looked back with heavy-lidded eyes. A faint smile played about her lips; who knew what she was happy about.

“What do you think was going on with that Zhang Sen, Senior Disciple?” Xia Lei broke the silence in the car. “Even if he was not upset over me throwing him into the pool and wants to work with us, he didn’t want a percentage of the profits either. He would lose a lot of potential money if our products sell well on JD. Why do you think he’s doing this?”

Liang Si-Yao shook her head, her large eyes bleary. “I, I don’t know... I know.”

Xia Lei smiled wryly. “Do you know or not know?”

“I wanna peepee!”

“What?” Xia Lei felt a headache coming on.

“Quick! I can’t hold it anymore!”

Xia Lei quickly stopped the car.

Liang Si-Yao staggered onto the beach. Xia Lei was afraid that she’d fall so he hurried after her.

A few minutes later, Xia Lei drove the car back to the main road and went straight to Liang Si-Yao’s home.

When he arrived at the Liang household, he opened the door using the duplicate key Liang Si-Yao had given him and carried her into her bedroom. Liang Si-Yao slept soundly through all this. Xia Lei covered her with a blanket and left her room.

“Ahem.” A male voice came from behind him.

Xia Lei braced himself and turned around. “Master, were you not asleep yet?” said Xia Lei respectfully.

“You made so much noise that I came out to take a look,” said Liang Zheng-Chun. He looked at the red-faced Xia Lei and wrinkled his brows. “You drank?”

Xia Lei summoned his courage. “Senior Disciple and I went to meet with an investor to discuss sales avenues for our company’s products. Senior Disciple, she uh, is drunk and fell asleep.”

“Troublemakers.” Liang Zheng-Chun’s expression was stern. “Is work more important than your own health? What use is wealth when your health suffers for it?”

“I’m sorry, Master. I’ve erred and this will never happen again.” Xia Lei looked contrite.

Liang Zheng-Chun’s gaze landed on Xia Lei’s legs and he frowned when he saw his wet trousers. “Why are your trousers wet? Did you fall in water?”

The scene from the beach replayed itself in Xia Lei’s head - Liang Si-Yao squatting next to him, and Liang Si-Yao wetting his trousers and shoes. His face turned red. Good thing his face was already red so the blush couldn’t be seen.

“Uh, yes. I was relieving myself by the side of the road and accidentally fell in a ditch.” Xia Lei thought fast and came up with an explanation in line with Liang Zheng-Chun’s assumptions.

It wasn’t right to lie to his Master but he couldn’t say that his daughter had peed on him, could he?

“Forget it. I shall not bother to reprimand you. Go to the study and maintain the horse stance for an hour, then go to bed,” said Liang Zheng-Chun.

“Yes, Master.” Xia Lei couldn’t wait to finish this awkward conversation and hurried to the study.

As he passed him, Liang Zheng-Chun caught a whiff of Xia Lei and suspicion spread across his face. “This smell... What ditch did he fall into?”

Xia Lei obediently did the horse stance for an hour in the study. Perspiration beaded his body and the alcohol in him came out with the perspiration too, relieving his body. After he was done, he took a few books on traditional Chinese medicine from Liang Zheng-Chun’s bookshelves and brought them to the room which had been allocated to him.

He lay on the bed to read the Chinese medicine volumes after his shower.

Learning medicine was an idea he’d had when he was in Germany but he hadn’t time for it till now.

Martial art practitioners mostly had some knowledge of Chinese medicine like Tuina massage, acupuncture and moxibustion because they were both quintessential aspects of China and shared many similar theories. A simple example would be meridians and acupuncture points - every practitioner knew those. This knowledge was also the foundation of acupuncture and moxibustion. If one knew the meridians and acupuncture points it would be easy to be proficient in acupuncture and moxibustion.

The first book Xia Lei read was one on acupuncture and moxibustion.

The speed at which he’d absorbed the knowledge could only be described as ‘terrifying’. One look and he’d memorised the entire meridian acupuncture map. He had only to think about it to recall the map, clear as day, with no errors whatsoever. He only needed to grasp which point corresponded to which organ, the needle-inserting methods, pressure needed and so on.

“The Central Palace* point is here.” Xia Lei pressed a point in his chest and read from the book. “Targeted at distension in the chest, vomiting, nausea, loss of appetite and paralysis. Treatment method is to puncture subcutaneously 0.3-0.5 inch..."

He located the points one by one and learnt their corresponding organs and the symptoms which could be treated. This was his first time learning acupuncture and he was so engrossed that he forgot the time. He eventually got too sleepy to go on and closed his eyes.

Xia Lei had a dream. He dreamt of a beach and Liang Si-Yao, and he dreamt of her pale, naked...

The next morning, Xia Lei shot upright in bed at the sound of Liang Si-Yao’s voice, looked down, hurriedly grabbed a pair of underwear from the bedside table and ran to the bathroom.

Liang Si-Yao and Xia Lei seemed to have an unspoken agreement and both said nothing of the previous night’s events.

After breakfast, Liang Zheng-Chun said, “Take me to the Department of Cultural Affairs.”

“Dad, you usually go to the martial school - why the Department of Cultural Affairs today? Is there something going on?” said Liang Si-Yao curiously.

“The Department of Cultural Affairs sent me an invitation. They want to promote traditional culture and hold a martial arts conference. I hear many world-class martial artists and martial arts groups will be participating. I’d like to go have a look myself, especially as a descendant of Wing Chun. Not many people put their trust in martial arts these days but I’d like to put in what effort I can to display the appeal of our Wing Chun at the conference.”

“Yes, this is a big thing. I support you.” Liang Si-Yao smiled.

“Master, just say the word if you need me to do anything,” said Xia Lei.

Liang Zheng-Chun rolled his eyes at him. “You’re so busy that I wouldn’t dare make you put your company aside to participate in this martial arts conference.”

“Master...” Xia Lei was embarrassed but he did not refute what Liang Zheng-Chun said.

Liang Zheng-Chun laughed. “All right, all right, I know you do your best. You don’t practice every day but you have improved a lot. I also know that you stayed up last night to study Chinese medicine. This martial arts conference is likely a bore anyway. I can go for it myself; you go about your business. I’ll tell you if I really need you to do something for me.”

Xia Lei smiled. “Yes, Master. I’ll send you to the Department of Cultural Affairs before I go to work.”

Xia Lei drove Liang Zheng-Chun to the Department of Cultural Affairs and then headed towards Thunder Horse Manufacturing with Liang Si-Yao.

Liang Si-Yao was deadpan when Liang Zheng-Chun was in the car and her expression changed after he alighted. She suddenly reached out and pinched Xia Lei on the thigh while he was waiting for the light to change at the intersection, and glared at him wordlessly.

“What are you doing, Senior Disciple?” said Xia Lei a little guiltily.

“Humph! I was drunk last night. What did you do to me?” Liang Si-Yao had her hackles up.

“Sent you home, of course. I didn’t do anything.”

“You liar! I found a lot of sand in my shoes this morning. My socks had...had the smell of pee!” Liang Si-Yao pinched Xia Lei again. “Did you pee on me in your drunkenness?”

Xia Lei was speechless.

There was a drama titled ‘The Injustice to Dou E*’ and Xia Lei felt like he suffered more injustice than Dou E.

“You’re not allowed to drive the next time you get drunk, all right?” Liang Si-Yao was suddenly concerned about Xia Lei again.

Xia Lei forced himself to nod.

“What’s up with that Zhang Sen last night?” Liang Si-Yao’s train of thought hopped onto another track. “He actually rejected a cut of our profit. Who on this Earth does business like that?”

Xia Lei felt like he had gone back in time to last night. He’d asked her the same question then but she’d answered by peeing on his trousers and blaming him for it this morning. She was asking the same question now and it felt very strange indeed.

Xia Lei drove on gloomily.

“Is he really just trying to make friends with you?”

“Nothing’s free in this world. Let’s wait and see.” Xia Lei went back to business. “Based on the current situation there isn’t any disadvantage for us so let’s not bother about him. We should solve our current problems first and take a closer look at him later.”

*https://www.sacredlotus.com/go/acupuncture/point/ren-16-zhong-ting-center-palace

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Injustice_to_Dou_E#Film_and_television