Chapter 7: 07 – Wrinkles

After Bu Tao left for the police academy, Lui Dashui took over the role of training them. His focus was training Fatty Fang, whereas Li Yun and Bufu were just add-ons.

A year flew by...

Fatty Fang and Li Yun lost some weight, but it was difficult to gauge as they were also growing taller. Lui Dashui was banking on his experience that all three brats would grow taller than the average male. Although competitions were based on weight class, not height, having a longer wingspan undoubtedly gave fighters a better reach advantage.

During a midweek afternoon, two middle schoolers stood apart inside the ring and waited for Lui Dashui to give them a signal. Fatty Fang, on one side, wore standard gear and boxing gloves, while Li Yun, on the opposing end, wore full padded gear on his face and body, looking like the Michelin man.

Bufu stood by the side, watching his two friends spar for the first time in a while. It took them forever to convince Li Yun to spar after Fatty Fang's sparring partner received an injury from a competition. Lui Dashui signaled the match to begin.

Li Yun watched Fatty Fang closely as they paced around the ring like two wolves battling for alpha position. Odds were, Fatty Fang was going to strike first. It was his usual style. He liked to be cute sometimes and start with a feint and kick, but it was rare. Usually, when he planned a feint or a complex maneuver, he would talk less before the fight since he needed more time to think about his strategy.

The two continued bouncing around and gauging each other's attacks, once in while doing jabs to measure the distance between them. Li Yun attacked Fatty Fang with a 1-2 punch combo from the left and then a right straight jab. Fatty Fang blocked both hits and then returned a right jab. Li Yun prepared to angle his head back, but Fatty Fang's attack was a feint. Fatty Fang kneed Li Yun in the gut.

"F***, a feint!" Li Yun thought, and in that brief second, he pivoted back and sucked in his stomach.

He had good reflexes, otherwise, a direct knee strike from Fatty Fang would empty the contents of his stomach. Unfortunately, the knee still scraped his torso and knocked him off balance, giving Fatty Fang the upper hand. Fatty Fang threw quick punches as Li Yun continued to parry and evade. After another thirty seconds, Lui Dashui declared Fatty Fang as the winner.

"This is b******, when did you figure out your tell?" asked Li Yun throwing his headgear down. He thought he read Fatty Fang well enough to win the fight.

"Bufu noticed the pattern and told me to start with a feint right before we started," said Fatty Fang.

Li Yun glared at Bufu. "Whose friend are ya anyway?" Li Yun asked in an accusing tone.

Bufu laughed. "I just wanted to test it out, I wasn't sure that Fatty Fang had that habit either."

"All right kids, that was pretty good," Lui Dashui complimented. "Little Fang, you still need to work on your footwork and form. Your movements are too wide, leaving it easy for opponents to take advantage of openings. Also, don't purely rely on strength."

Lui Dashui looked at Li Yun. "Little Yun, your formwork is good, but you're still a bit weak on striking and power."

There wasn't much to say about Li Yun. He only sparred against Fatty Fang because there was no one else close to Fatty Fang age and weight class. Li Yun was only two weight classes below Fatty Fang. Although he was not as strong as Fatty Fang, he was considered an intelligent and agile fighter with instinctive dodging ability. The only major problem Lui Dahsui saw was his lack of ambition.

Li Yun would be good at standard form competitions, but Lui Dashui wasn't as traditionally trained in Chinese martial arts like Bu Tao. Lui Dashui was more familiar with sambo and boxing. Otherwise, Li Yun may have a future in the junior Olympics.

"So Little Fang, are you ready to enter a tournament, or do you want to train more?" asked Lui Dashui.

"Can I learn Brazilian Ju Jitsu next?" asked Fatty Fang.

He had learned from the other members that Brazilian Ju Jitsu was one of the best styles to learn with sanda as it filled in some of the gaps that were left out from sanda due to contact sport rules back in the early days of development.

Lui Dashui thought for a moment. "If you want to learn Brazilian Ju Jitsu, you should ask Mao Dao. He learned BJJ overseas for a few years."

After training, the kids took the bus back to the apartment. Li Yun was exhausted and was ready for dinner. He opened the door to the apartment, but the somber mood of the room completely overwhelmed him. Even grandpa Lu Yan and grandma Lu Nai had arrived, whispering quietly by the dining table.

"What happened?" Li Yun asked.

"Elder Pei is in the hospital," Li Fan explained in a low and somber voice. "He might not make it by tomorrow…"

Li Yun heard his father, but his brain did not register.

He slipped back out of his apartment, and ran downstairs, knocking on Elder Pei's door.

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"Hey Elder Pei! Open up!" Li Yun knocked and knocked, but no answer.

"Master Pei!" He cried out again, but after no response, he slumped to the ground and he wept.

The following week, Li Yun attended the funeral, along with friends and family around the area. Elder Pei didn't have a lot of immediate families, just a brother living in a different city who arrived to settle the funeral arrangements.

Li Yun entered the room filled with white flowers and banners, and glanced at the elderly women weeping by the side. The majority of people were from the apartment complexes, people who would see Elder Pei on his morning walk. Many of the children followed along with their parents and grandparents, but it was only Li Yun who felt a sense of loss.

Throughout the proceeding, Li Yun stared at the ground with hollowed eyes, his head drooped downward as though it was filled with heavy leaded weights. He wondered why he wasn't able to see it coming. For five years, Li Yun had spent many of his evenings with Elder Pei. He should have noticed it sooner.

During the past two weeks, Elder Pei's face looked different than usual, but it didn't look like any sign of an illness. As Li Yun had been studying face reading, he naturally caught onto the changing and stared at Elder Pei's face for a long time.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Elder Pei asked. "Still doing that face reading thing?"

"Yes, they say it's easier on old people?" Li Yun replied, straightforward as usual.

Elder Pei laughed. "Oh ho, because of all the wrinkles?"

Li Yun nodded.

"What can you see?"

"You used to have quite a temper, but you have managed to control it over the years. You have lost quite a few people you have treasured. You rarely ever smile, but have experienced a lot of happiness and joy in your life. Your eyes smile for you, so there are a lot of wrinkles around the corner of your eyes."

"Well now, I'm starting to like my wrinkles."

Li Yun had never thought about it before learning face reading, but wrinkles were really interesting. They could tell a person's story and life.

Elder Pei nodded. "But you shouldn't always believe everything you read, sometimes you have to experience it in order to find out the truth. What else do you see?"

"Your breathing and complexion have changed a bit recently."

"Are you a Chinese doctor now? You're even watching people breathe?"

"Are you feeling okay?"

"I've never felt more alive," Elder Pei breathed in deeply while spreading out his arms to gather in more air.

Li Yun could tell that Elder Pei was telling the truth, so maybe he had analyzed the breathing pattern wrong.

"Now enough about that, let me show you the work of Huang Tingjian," Elder Pei removed his glasses, and spread out a reproduction of Huang Tingjian's calligraphy.

Elder Pei pointed to the character in Huang Tingjian's text, and explained how different the character was written differently throughout the text. Instead of paying attention, Li Yun was momentarily distracted by Elder Pei's glassy eyes. He also thought it odd that the far-sighted elder didn't need his glasses to read.

"Little Yun, are you paying attention?" Elder Pei asked in a kindly tone.

"Ah, yes," Li Yun refocused his attention back onto the scroll for the rest of the evening.

With his lesson done, Li Yun prepared to head on as usual. On the way out of the door, Elder Pei ruffled Li Yun's hair and said, "goodbye my friend."

Thinking back, all the signs were there. If he had determined it sooner, he could have spent more time with Elder Pei before he left.

The funeral was about to end, and people were slowly trickling out and returning home. Li Yun's parents motioned him to prepare to leave, but he remained rooted in place. He gripped onto a scroll for a moment, and finally laid it down by Elder Pei's coffin, "goodbye my friend."

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