To Ning Chen's surprise, Xu Shuyan's father had arrived.
Xu Jingshan.
A well-known entrepreneur in Qingzhou.
Xu Shuyan was currently wriggling her fair shoulders on the sofa, acting spoiled and calling out "Daddy" with a sugary sweetness that made her sound like a three-year-old.
Seeing Ning Chen return, Xu Shuyan instantly straightened her pretty face, crossed her snow-white, beautiful legs, and resumed her aloof posture.
"You must be Ning Chen?"
Xu Jingshan walked over from the living room, a pair of hawk-like eyes sizing up Ning Chen.
Butler Fan Yi followed closely behind, step for step.
"Hello, Uncle Xu."
Ning Chen gave a polite greeting.
"I've heard about what happened today, Xiaochen. Thank you for getting Shuyan out of that mess."
Xu Jingshan smiled benevolently and said, "Your mother and Shuyan's mother are close friends, so naturally, I hope you and Shuyan can become good friends too."
"Daddy~ I don't want to be good friends with him at all!" Before Ning Chen could speak, Xu Shuyan's spoiled, sugary voice rang out.
"I don't want to either," Ning Chen agreed.
"You—"
Furious, Xu Shuyan hurled a throw pillow at him. "Who do you think you are? The number of people lining up to be this young lady's friend is endless!"
"Rest assured, in three months at most, we'll be parting ways." Ning Chen tilted his head to dodge the pillow.
"What parting ways? You make it sound like we're in a relationship!" Xu Shuyan waved her small fists in anger.
"Alright."
Xu Jingshan gave a bitter smile and called Ning Chen out to the courtyard.
Stepping from the bright light into the shadows, the man's expression gradually grew cold.
Noticing this, Ning Chen asked, "Uncle Xu, if you have something to say, just spit it out."
"Good."
Xu Jingshan put on a very serious expression. "Ning Chen, to be honest, I was initially against the idea of you moving in."
"Shuyan is the apple of my eye. For her to cohabit with a young man full of vigor—if word of this gets out, it will cause quite a sensation in Qingzhou."
"So, the first thing I want to warn you about is that you are strictly forbidden from spreading the news that you live here."
"Why not just kick me out directly?" Ning Chen asked.
"Two reasons. First, my wife is very fond of you and even wants to play matchmaker between you and Shuyan."
"That is obviously a pipe dream, so you can forget about it."
Xu Jingshan said in an unyielding tone, "Secondly, Shuyan told me that you are very strong. Have you practiced martial arts?"
"Mm, I have," Ning Chen nodded.
"Old Fan has practiced too, the Li-style Baji. Do you dare spar with him for a couple of moves?" Xu Jingshan asked.
"You'll have to ask him about that," Ning Chen replied.
"Haha!" Xu Jingshan and Fan Yi exchanged glances and both burst out laughing.
"Kid, you're not very old, but you sure talk big."
Fan Yi stood with his hands behind his back, smiling as he asked, "Have you ever heard of Internal Force?"
"Internal Force? Never heard of it." Ning Chen shook his head.
*He hasn't even heard of Internal Force. It seems he's just an ordinary martial arts enthusiast.*
Fan Yi secretly shook his head. Then, he freed his left hand, curled his five fingers slightly, and made a clawing motion into empty air!
"Crack!"
Five finger marks were blasted into a ginkgo tree in the courtyard, sinking half an inch deep.
If that strike were to land on a person, they would either die or be severely injured.
"This is Internal Force!"
"It can only be forged by martial artists who have immersed themselves in the martial Dao for decades. People at this level are called martial generals. In ancient times, they could charge into battle and fight a hundred men single-handedly."
As he spoke, Fan Yi put his hand back behind his back, figuring that this kid named Ning must be scared out of his wits.
*Isn't this just internal energy?* Ning Chen was unimpressed.
However, he suddenly developed a keen interest in modern ancient martial arts, so he asked:
"Butler Fan, may I ask what realms exist above Internal Force?"
Seeing that Ning Chen was not frightened out of his wits, Fan Yi secretly nodded in approval.
*His temperament is very calm, not bad!*
Then he said, "Young man, don't aim too high. An Internal Force martial general is already one in ten thousand. Placed in ancient times, passing the military imperial examination would be a walk in the park."
"To achieve Internal Force like mine, one must first master External Force. Even with top-tier natural aptitude, it takes ten years of hard labor."
*This old man talks way too much,* Ning Chen thought to himself.
"Old Fan, how is he really?" Xu Jingshan asked in a lowered voice.
"Chairman, he can serve as a bodyguard for the young miss. Dealing with ordinary punks will be no problem at all," Fan Yi gave his conclusion.
Xu Jingshan nodded.
"I'll give you a mission: protect Shuyan at school, just like you did today. Can you do it?" he said to Ning Chen.
"So this is the second reason you kept me here?" Ning Chen found it quite amusing.
Asking a Nascent Soul Stage grand cultivator to protect a female student.
Wonderful, very creative.
"That's right. This way, I won't have to argue with my wife, and you get to stay. It's the best of both worlds."
Xu Jingshan's calculating mind was working overtime. "Besides that, I'll pay you a salary of ten thousand yuan. A boy of your age should be quite short on money."
"I'm just an ordinary student, so Uncle Xu should find someone more capable."
With that, Ning Chen dropped those words and walked away.
Protect Xu Shuyan? Just living under the same roof as her was already suffocating enough.
"This brat... really thinks he's hot stuff!"
The muscles on Xu Jingshan's face twitched slightly.
Fan Yi shook his head as well.
The Xu Group was a top-ten major enterprise in Qingzhou, and the Xu family was also a renowned wealthy and influential clan in Jiangnan.
A prime opportunity to cross social classes was placed right in front of him, and he actually missed it?
He truly felt it was a pity for this young man.
...
"To actually reduce my two capable commanders to this state."
"Zhao Lipeng, no matter what background you have, I, Bai Xiao... will have you dead!"
Qingda First Affiliated Hospital.
Bai Xiao looked at Chen Zilang and Chen Zibao, who were lying on hospital beds receiving oxygen, and his expression turned gloomy.
The two brothers had already lost consciousness, and it was uncertain when they would wake up.
"Brother Xiao, I've looked into it. This Zhao Lipeng is indeed in the Qingzhou University Sanda club, and a core member at that."
"Both his parents are ordinary people with no background. He only has an uncle who is a head of discipline."
A woman with wine-red dyed hair walked up to his side.
Her name was Wang Yinhua. She was Bai Xiao's mistress and secretary, a very sexy woman.
People who made it up like Bai Xiao would all open companies to whitewash themselves as businessmen, but in essence, they were still thugs, with protection money making up the bulk of their income.
"Damn it, a college student who practices Sanda is this fierce? What the hell!"
Gritting his teeth, Bai Xiao said, "Forget it, Yinhua, call in our people!"
"If one won't do, use ten; if ten won't do, use twenty; if twenty won't do, use fifty; if fifty won't do, use a hundred!! I refuse to believe this kid surnamed Zhao is some kind of fucking Superman!"
"If I don't finish him off, I, Bai Xiao, won't need to show my face in the West District anymore!"
Wang Yinhua secretly frowned, seemingly having objections to this decision.
Even so, she nodded.
"Alright, Brother Xiao. I'll make the calls right now and have the brothers get ready."
"We'll definitely beat him to death!"
"Do it!"
Chapter 11: If you put it that way, then I'm interested!
The first day of school.
Xu Shuyan woke up early and deliberately stomped heavily as she went downstairs, hoping to disturb Ning Chen's sleep.
As it turned out, the guy wasn't in his room at all; he had already gone out for a stroll long ago.
Upon arriving at school, Xu Shuyan had Ning Chen get out of the car at the school gate first while she and Jiang Tang headed to the underground parking garage. Ning Chen was more than happy to oblige.
During the first week of the semester, after the freshman briefing assembly concluded, it was time for military training.
Ning Chen had countless ways to avoid military training, but there was no need.
"Time's up, twenty-minute break!"
At the young instructor's command, many of the fifty students in Clinical Medicine Class 2 collapsed onto the ground, wiping away sweat with their sleeves.
"Holding a military posture is so exhausting."
"Yeah, I feel like my legs are about to break."
"Standing completely still is truly miserable."
"We still have to endure seven days, Wuwuwu..."
Complaints filled the air.
Seeing this, the young instructor shook his head. "You college students nowadays are too pampered. You can't even stand in a military posture for forty minutes. You're completely useless!"
Faced with such disdain, several boys in the class were clearly unconvinced.
"Instructor, you can't generalize like that!"
A short-haired boy raised his hand and stood up. "Standing in a military posture is nothing to me. I work out and play basketball every day, so my physical fitness should be on par with yours."
The young instructor smiled. "Is that so? What's your name?"
The short-haired youth raised his chin proudly. "Li Xuanming!"
"So handsome! He actually dares to talk to the instructor like that."
Many girls in the class cast surprised glances toward Li Xuanming.
Ning Chen also sat back to watch the show.
"Care for a match?" The young instructor felt it necessary to teach this group of college students a lesson.
"Sure, what are we competing in?" Li Xuanming's competitive spirit was ignited.
If he somehow managed to defeat the instructor, wouldn't that allow him to stand out brilliantly?
Even if he lost, it wouldn't be a particularly shameful thing.
"Let's just do push-ups," the young instructor said casually.
"No problem!" Li Xuanming patted his thick, muscular chest.
The two of them were ready in no time.
Hands on the ground, standing side-by-side.
The rules of this competition were very simple: whoever gave up first would lose.
Hearing that students were competing against an instructor, nearby classes enthusiastically gathered around to watch.
At the beginning, Li Xuanming could keep up with the instructor's pace, and his form was standard enough. But after eighty, his form began to break down.
At one hundred, he was drenched in sweat.
At one hundred twenty, his whole body was trembling.
"Damn it, this instructor is really tough..."
Li Xuanming looked up and was almost scared out of his wits!
Because that young instructor was actually doing one-armed push-ups!
Flabbergasted, he immediately stood up and asked, "Instructor, you..."
"Why aren't you continuing?"
The young instructor also stood up, smiling, his face slightly flushed.
"Bro, you lost miserably. You did them with both arms, while the instructor used just one..." A nearby boy reminded him.
"What the hell..." Li Xuanming's cheeks flushed red as he finally realized the gap between an ordinary fitness enthusiast and a soldier.
"Just a mere college student, yet you wanted to challenge us. Too naive."
The instructors from nearby classes who had gathered to watch exchanged glances, all holding back their laughter.
After Li Xuanming returned to the formation, the young instructor asked again, "Anyone else not convinced? You can step out and try."
No one in the class responded.
Even tall and sturdy Li Xuanming had lost; who else would dare overestimate their own abilities?
The young instructor added another sentence: "If anyone beats me, you're excused from military training."
"Oh?"
Ning Chen raised an eyebrow.
If you're going to put it that way, then I'm definitely interested!
"Dachun, you're so strong, why don't you go out and try?"
Fang the Fatty egged Zhang Dachun on from the side.
Zhang Dachun shook his head. "I can do seventy push-ups at most in one breath, and twenty one-armed ones at most. The instructor would wipe the floor with me in minutes."
"An instructor's physical fitness is just fierce; we can't compare," Fang the Fatty sighed.
"Alright, continue training—"
Just as the young instructor shouted out, a student suddenly raised his hand. "Um, Instructor, I'd like to try."
It was none other than Ning Chen.
He didn't want to do military training; it felt a bit boring.
"Swish!"
All fifty students in the class simultaneously cast shocked gazes toward him.
"You?" Li Xuanming wore a mocking expression.
In his view, Ning Chen was skinny with zero muscles—even worse off than him—so how dared he challenge the instructor?
"He's that guy who picked a fight with Zhao Lipeng from the Sanda club yesterday."
"I heard he actually dared to beat up an upperclassman."
"Holy crap, beating up an upperclassman? Is he really that bold?"
Whispers broke out across the class.
No one knew what background this Ning Chen had, but to dare challenge the instructor meant he must have some tricks up his sleeve.
"You want to challenge me?"
The young instructor looked Ning Chen up and down skeptically. "Are you sure?"
"Instructor, does what you said just now count?"
Ning Chen confirmed, "If I win against you, I don't have to do military training."
"It counts! Of course it counts!"
The young instructor looked confident. "However, you have to beat me first!"
"That's fine then."
Ning Chen's mind was at ease.
After stepping out of formation, he began the push-up competition with the instructor. Both started with standard double-arm push-ups, knocking them out one after another.
"If he can beat the instructor, I'll stream myself eating shit!"
Li Xuanming declared to his dorm mates.
"Wanwan, do you think this Ning Chen can win?"
A round-faced girl wearing glasses asked Su Wanwan curiously.
Su Wanwan gave a slight nod of her pretty head. "I believe he can!"
"Wanwan, you're overthinking it."
A pretty girl with a high ponytail expressed complete disdain. "No matter what, as a college student, there's no way he can beat an instructor. The guy trains in this every single day."
"Exactly, everyone has their specialty. Don't use your hobby to challenge someone else's livelihood."
Another pockmarked girl chimed in.
Even though the girls in their dorm all thought Ning Chen was bound to lose, Su Wanwan still held a sliver of hope.
She had seen Ning Chen utterly beat up Ma Kun and his gang of thugs as if it were child's play; even trained soldiers might not pull it off with such casual ease.
Soon, the count of push-ups passed fifty, and the young instructor began his show.
Switching from two arms to one.
"Kid, you're still a bit too green to compete with me in this!"
"I happen to be the push-up record holder for our platoon!"
The young instructor sneered inwardly.
Next, he saw Ning Chen also switch to one arm, folding his fingers in one by one.
In the end, only a single pinky finger was left propped against the ground as he rapidly executed the motion.
"How is that possible?"
The young instructor was dumbfounded on the spot.
Inside Clinical Medicine Class 2, a wave of shrieks erupted, especially from those girls who had just claimed he was guaranteed to lose.
"Oh my god, a single finger? Did I see that right?"
"Could this be the legendary One-Finger Zen push-up!"
"And it's even the pinky finger, holy crap, so fierce..."
Not just Clinical Medicine Class 2, but even students from neighboring classes ran over to watch the spectacle.
Many instructors dropped their jaws in shock upon seeing this scene!
What on earth was this?
Li Xuanming, who had fancied himself the fittest student in the class, felt his face burn red, as if he had been dealt a series of vicious slaps...
Chapter 12: This has nothing to do with us!
There were fitness influencers on Douyin who performed all sorts of fancy push-ups.
One-finger push-ups weren't completely unheard of.
Yet practically all of them used the index finger.
Ning Chen performed using his pinky finger and rattled off dozens of them in one breath, instantly blowing the minds of these mortals!
Had he not feared scaring them out of their wits, forget One-Finger Zen, he could have even done armless push-ups.
"What on earth are you?"
After getting up, the young instructor stared at Ning Chen in utter astonishment, as if looking at a monster.
Unable to think of a good excuse on the spur of the moment, Ning Chen simply recycled Li Xuanming's words: "I work out and play basketball every day, so my physical fitness gradually trained itself into this shape."
"..." The young instructor turned his head to glare at Li Xuanming.
"Is this brat deliberately slapping my face?!" Li Xuanming was so angry he gnashed his teeth.
He felt even more aggrieved upon noticing that Su Wanwan, the beauty queen of their medical department, was gazing at Ning Chen with an expression of worship.
"Who would've thought Ning Chen was so fierce? No wonder he dared to beat up an upperclassman!"
Fang the Fatty and Zhang Dachun exchanged shocked glances.
"Instructor, if there's nothing else, I'll be leaving first."
After getting up off the ground, Ning Chen turned and walked away.
"Wait!"
The young instructor hurried after him, sweating profusely as he explained to Ning Chen that he was only joking earlier and couldn't actually exempt him from military training.
Ning Chen instantly grew displeased.
What was the meaning of this?
Had the guy not made that wager, he wouldn't even have bothered showing off!
The matter eventually went all the way up to the head instructor.
Taking reputation into account, the head instructor unexpectedly made an exception and allowed Ning Chen to skip military training altogether.
"This kid is no ordinary person; he didn't show a shred of timidity in front of me..."
After Ning Chen walked away contentedly, the over-forty head instructor muttered as he gazed at his retreating back.
"Head instructor, isn't this a bit inappropriate? I'm worried the other students will have objections if they find out," the young instructor said with a troubled expression.
"Objections? What objections!"
The head instructor placed his hands behind his back, exuding a stern, unangered authority. "If any of them can do ten one-finger push-ups in a row, they won't have to do military training either. My word goes!"
"Yes!"
...
Ning Chen strolled around outside, changed his clothes, and finally went to the school supermarket to buy a box of ice cream, eating it as he walked.
"Aren't those Xu Shuyan and Jiang Tang?"
Passing by the basketball court, he spotted two acquaintances and picked a shady spot to sit down.
This was the military training location for Performance Arts Class 1, and as expected, there were plenty of beauties.
However, he hadn't come specifically to look at beauties; he was just looking for a place to sit and finish his ice cream.
"Strange. Logically speaking, with Xu Jingshan pulling a few strings, Xu Shuyan wouldn't have to suffer under the sun like this."
"Could he be intentionally toughening her up?"
Ning Chen pulled out his phone to play with while eating his ice cream.
"Shuyan, look, isn't that Big Brother Dali? Why doesn't he have to do military training?"
Soon, Jiang Tang spotted Ning Chen.
Following the sound of her voice, Xu Shuyan looked over and saw a boy eating ice cream under the tree shadow not far away—it was indeed that violent perth!
Damn it!
She was getting baked under the scorching sun while this guy was eating ice cream!
Is he intentionally retaliating against me, this jerk?!
A day's time passed quickly. Ning Chen fell asleep under the tree without realizing it. Since he wasn't wearing a military uniform, the instructors assumed he was a sophomore and left him alone.
"Brother Peng, that kid Ning Chen is weird. Next time, let's call in more people and thoroughly teach him a lesson!" Liu Di's voice drifted over.
"Last time my cultivation went haywire. If I run into him again, I swear I'll beat him to death!" That was Zhao Lipeng's voice.
The two walked past Ning Chen side by side, completely failing to notice him.