Chapter 1 Settling Down

Several days later, the Jiangnan Province training team returned, and Xu Jingming also left the Starry Sky Martial Arts Hall, preparing to return to his hometown.

Afternoon, Binhai City High-speed Rail North Station.

"Take care of yourself, being alone in Binhai City." Xu Jingming and Li Miaomiao hugged goodbye. Li Miaomiao was wearing a mask, with a female assistant by her side. Although Xu Jingming had entered the World Martial Arts Competition twice, reaching the top sixteen once and the top eight once, he had rarely appeared in public. Walking on the street, few people could recognize him. But Li Miaomiao was different; she was very popular. Even though she only streamed once a month, she still had tens of millions of fans. Without a mask, she would likely be recognized quickly.

"I estimate it will take two or three more days for me to arrange everything, then I can go back. Sister Kong has already gone to Mingyue City in advance; they've rented the house." Li Miaomiao said. Sister Kong was one of Li Miaomiao's two assistants.

"Xiao Zeng, you must take good care of your boss these next few days." Xu Jingming said to the petite female assistant, Xiao Zeng, beside her.

"Yes, sir!" Xiao Zeng immediately puffed out her chest and replied.

Xu Jingming smiled and nodded, then hugged his girlfriend again.

"Send me a message when you get home," Li Miaomiao instructed.

"Okay, I'm leaving."

Xu Jingming turned around, carrying his backpack, and passed through the security checkpoint to board the high-speed rail.

Li Miaomiao, with her female assistant, watched Xu Jingming's back disappear into the passageway before leaving.

******

On the high-speed rail, Xu Jingming sat in his seat, with a three-foot-wide light screen floating in front of him.

Only Xu Jingming could clearly see the light screen from his angle; from other angles, the brightness was insufficient, and it would be distorted.

"Dear friends and family, from now on, I'm settling down in Mingyue City! Welcome everyone to visit Mingyue City, I'll be sure to host you the entire time!" Xu Jingming posted a message on his social media, and replies quickly appeared.

"Junior Brother, have a safe trip!" This message was from Fang Xinglong, the owner of the Starry Sky Martial Arts Hall and his Senior Brother.

"Old Xu, leaving Binhai?" This was from his former national team teammate and good brother, Heng Fang.

"Senior Brother, you're finally back in Mingyue City! The brothers have been waiting anxiously!" This was from Zhu Tong, his junior brother from the Bajiquan School in Mingyue City.

"You're back, come see me as soon as possible." This was from Dai Tongda, the master of the Chuo Jiao School in Mingyue City, and one of Xu Jingming's two masters during his youth! When he was young, Xu Jingming's enlightenment master was his own father, and then, under his father's guidance, he became Dai Tongda's disciple.

"I hear Mingyue City is a very beautiful city. I must visit someday." This was from the foreign world-class martial arts expert, "Hunter" Mick Qi. Mick Qi had studied in Xia Country and was proficient in Chinese.

"A great expert is returning home, you must treat us to a meal. Many old classmates want to see you." This was from his high school classmate, Wu Wei.

As time passed, messages appeared one after another.

There were old classmates, relatives, teammates from the provincial and national teams, some martial arts experts who had become friends through sparring, some martial arts agents and coaches, and some students he had taught.

Xu Jingming looked at these messages and smiled, replying to his friends one by one.

...

Beijing, inside a Chinese-style villa.

Liu Hai, who was eating his third meal of the day, was also looking at the social media on the light screen. When he was in seclusion each year, he would usually check social media while eating to learn about outside news.

"Jingming is leaving Binhai and returning to Mingyue City?" Liu Hai understood. "He was forced by Cheng Zihui of the Tiger Shark Group."

"National Key Cultivation List."

Liu Hai gently touched the screen, looking at the list of candidates, shaking his head helplessly. "I talked until my mouth was dry with several old friends, but Jingming was still rejected."

"The list has a total of twenty people, twelve martial arts masters, and five others from other martial arts styles. There are only three spots to compete for... In the end, these three spots were given to two professional martial arts players and one professional Sanda player."

"The professional Sanda player is a Grand Slam winner."

"One of the professional martial arts players has won fourth place in the World Martial Arts Competition! The other has entered the world's top eight three times, their achievements are better than Jingming's."

This list was too special, Liu Hai only had the right to recommend, and he had already done his best.

...

The scenery outside the window whizzed by.

Xu Jingming looked up at the window. After chatting on social media for only a short while, he had already entered the Mingyue City area.

From Binhai City to Mingyue City, the high-speed rail only took thirty-five minutes.

"Returning to my hometown." Xu Jingming was in a good mood. Looking out, beside the river channel outside the high-speed rail window, were countless weeping willows. The scenery of the Jiangnan water towns was refreshing.

Although economically, Mingyue City could not compare with Binhai City, Xia Country's economic center, Mingyue City was much better for living. The entire city seemed to be built in a park, with a slow pace of life. Many elderly people from all over the country moved here to retire.

"Mingyue City, I'm back." Exiting the high-speed rail station and taking an unmanned intelligent car, Xu Jingming went straight to his parents' residence. It was a villa district with some history; he had lived there almost all the time before he turned eighteen.

Inside the villa district.

Xu Jingming walked in the lane, the stone bricks on the ground had traces of time. Some were old stone bricks, and some should have been damaged and replaced with new stone bricks by the property management. A blurry graffiti mark on a wall caught Xu Jingming's eye, and he couldn't help but reach out and touch it.

This graffiti was what he had drawn on the wall of his neighbor Li Danui's house when he was five years old. So many years had passed, but there were still blurry traces left.

Walking on this lane, he thought of the scenes of himself going to school with his schoolbag on his back, and his father picking him up from school. At that time, robots were not as intelligent, his mother was responsible for cooking, and his father was responsible for picking him up.

"In the blink of an eye, twenty years have passed." Xu Jingming walked to the familiar courtyard gate, gently pushed it, and the door was not locked; it was opened in advance.

Xu Jingming walked into the front yard, which was a small yard of more than thirty square meters. Xu Jingming practiced martial arts here for a long time when he was a child.

"Dad, Mom." Xu Jingming called out.

"Jingming is back!"

"It's Jingming who's back!"

Voices came from inside the house. Xu Jingming pushed open the door of the living room and saw that his parents had already gotten up. Xu's mother was wearing pajamas and slippers, and Xu's father was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts. After all, it was the middle of summer, and they were very casual at home.

"Jingming." Xu's mother saw her son and hugged him happily. "Your mother missed you so much. Where's Miaomiao? Did you come back alone?"

"Miaomiao will be back in two days." Xu Jingming said with a smile.

Xu's father came out, looked at Xu Jingming, and asked, "Where's your weapon?"

"They've all been shipped. Because there are many things, and they're all large and heavy, they won't arrive until tomorrow, and they'll all be delivered to the new house." Xu Jingming said.

Xu's father nodded.

Xu's father, named Xu Hong, was the same height as Xu Jingming, but much more burly and strong. After all, he was a fierce man who founded the Bajiquan School in Mingyue City, majoring in Bajiquan, and had to practice stake training every day. The Bajiquan School's stake training involved using arms, chest, shoulders, back, elbows, etc., to hit wooden stakes, which was considered stake training. There was also the one-armed handstand stake training, which mainly trained the arms. A one-armed handstand was difficult, so a simplified version could be a "two-handed handstand," and a further simplified version was a "push-up stake training"... There was also the Underwater Scooping the Moon exercise to train the legs...

The various skills of the Bajiquan School were to make every part of the body have great strength, as fierce as a bear and tiger.

Xu's father was tiger-backed and bear-waisted, and there was an overbearing aura about him just standing there.

"Dad, you need to lose weight." Xu Jingming said, "You're over two hundred pounds now, right?"

"Two hundred and ten pounds." Xu's father shook his head and said, "There's no way, I'm old, my back injury often flares up, and I have to be careful when practicing. I only practice for two hours a day, and that's why I've gained weight. In the past, I always maintained a weight of one hundred and ninety pounds."

"If you practice less, I tell you to eat less, but you still eat and eat, how can you not gain weight?" Xu's mother's figure was enough to make many young girls envious, only the wrinkles on her face and the few strands of white hair on her head revealed her age.

Xu's mother was a painter who traveled around the world with Xu's father when she was young, and later settled in Mingyue City together.

"I'm used to eating, I can't control it," Xu's father said with a smile.

"You, you were too warlike when you were young, visiting those martial arts schools all over the world, and often sparring wherever you went." Xu's mother shook her head. "You got injured all over, you could handle it when you were young, but you feel it when you're old, with aches and pains here and there every now and then. Jingming, you must take this as a warning, and focus on health preservation in the future, and less actual combat."

"That's right, martial arts weapon combat is very dangerous." Xu's father also nodded. When his son was twenty years old, his leg was broken by his opponent on the World Martial Arts Competition stage, and he and his wife were panicked when they saw it from the stands.

"Don't worry, Mom and Dad, I've settled down in Mingyue City, who am I going to have actual combat with?" Xu Jingming said with a smile.

"Jingming is back?" A voice came from upstairs.

"Grandpa?" Xu Jingming was extremely happy.

"Your grandfather knew you were coming back today, so he came over early in the morning. He was sleepy in the afternoon, so he took a nap upstairs." Xu's mother said, "I guess he heard us talking."

Xu Jingming put down his backpack and walked to the atrium of the villa, seeing the white-haired old man walking down, his steps still relatively steady.

"Grandpa." Xu Jingming quickly walked to the stairs.

"It's good to be back, isn't Mingyue City more beautiful and comfortable than Binhai City?" The white-haired old man smiled so much that his eyes narrowed. Seeing his eldest grandson, he was of course very happy.

"I won't leave this time, and I'll spend more time with Grandpa." Xu Jingming also felt sorry for his grandfather.

His grandfather, named Xu Guishun, came from a rural family. When he was young, he was a professional esports player with the game nickname "Nameless Master."

At that time, it was still mobile games! His grandfather had even won an FMVP once, and his career income was quite high. After retiring, he became a game streamer, and over the years, he saved a lot of money, which was how the Xu family accumulated their foundation.

But his grandfather was already eighty-eight years old, and his health was getting worse and worse.

"Come, eat fruit." His father and mother brought out two large fruit plates, with grapes, bananas, and watermelon, all prepared.

"Eat fruit." Xu's grandfather was also in a very good mood, and sat down and picked up a piece of watermelon and handed it to Xu Jingming. "Try the watermelon from our hometown, these are all local watermelons."

"Grandpa, I'll do it myself." Xu Jingming also sat down and picked up a piece of watermelon.

He still remembered that when he was a child, his grandfather often took him to play. At that time, his mother was still very young, and his father was in his prime, often taking a group of disciples to practice martial arts.

Now, his grandfather was old, full of wrinkles, and his face was covered with age spots.

His mother also had some white hair, and her wrinkles were hard to hide. Although his father was burly and strong, he was after all sixty years old, and he also had a twilight air about him.

"Birth, old age, sickness, and death, no one can stop it." Xu Jingming thought, "I've grown up, but Mom and Dad are old, and Grandpa has fewer and fewer years left."

Returning home and feeling the warmth of the family, Xu Jingming felt even more the ruthlessness of time.

"These fruits were bought by your dad this morning, they're all the freshest," Xu's mother said.

"They're very delicious." Xu Jingming ate, smiling happily.
Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi