Cangmang Asks the Way 1: Guardian of the Lamp

From that day on, Cangtianci's life was split in two.

At school, he struggled with forgetting things in the last row of the classroom. At the sports school, he reconciled with his body in the training hall.

He practiced the Three-Body Stance every day without fail. The first "connection" gave him hope, but he soon discovered that the feeling didn't come every time.

On the first day, I stood for twenty minutes, and my feet felt warm; the thread in my body was still there. On the second day, it dissipated after fifteen minutes, and my legs started shaking. On the third day, no matter how I stood, I couldn't find the thread; my feet were ice-cold, as if I had never passed through it.

He went to ask Chen Xuhua.

Chen Xuhua said, "It's normal. Once it's cleared, it's not a permanent solution. It will get blocked again, and then cleared again, just like a river. The first dredging is the hardest. After that, silt will accumulate, and you have to clean it every day."

Cang Tianci remembered those words.

During the first week, his legs started shaking after standing for less than ten minutes. It wasn't that he couldn't hold on; it was that his strength had dissipated—his breath had dissipated, and his energy had dissipated. He gritted his teeth and searched again, and on the ninth day, the line reappeared. This time, it was more stable than the first time.

In the second week, he was able to stand steadily for fifteen minutes. The warming sensation in the soles of his feet was no longer occasional, but would rise on its own after about five minutes of standing.

In the third week, the heat began to travel upwards—over his ankles, to his knees, to his hips, and up his spine. It wasn't that he deliberately guided it; his body simply remembered the path.

Cang Tianci recalled the words from the Tao Te Ching: "It is continuous and inexhaustible." He didn't understand it before, but now he seemed to understand it a little.

In addition to stance training, the learning of routines is also being carried out simultaneously.

The first set of boxing Chen Xuhua taught was the "Junior Standard Boxing." This is the foundation of competitive routines and a designated event for the Provincial Youth Championships. The entire set consists of dozens of movements, from the starting stance, the bow stance with cross-palm push, the T-stance with fists clasped... one after another, one move after another, requiring an extremely high level of memory.

For Cang Tianci, the difficulty was not in the movements themselves, but in memorizing them.

When Coach Chen demonstrated the movements, he had to be completely focused, quickly replaying each movement in his mind repeatedly. While others rested, he didn't rest, but instead practiced repeatedly on the training field.

If there was anything he forgot, he would walk up to Chen Xuhua and ask. Chen Xuhua didn't find it annoying at all; on the contrary, he appreciated Cang Tianci's focus and diligence.

Although Cang Tianci learned slowly and forgot easily, he managed to keep up with the coach's teaching pace thanks to his focus, timely review, and diligent practice.

His foundation is solid. The explosive power, flexibility, and coordination he developed through Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) are equally applicable in routines. The power generated by his waist and hips in the lunge punch is the same as the power generated by his whip kick in Sanda; the stability of his horse stance is the same as the horse stance he practiced countless times.

More importantly, it's his physique. Slender and graceful, he makes the same movements with an added elegance compared to others. When he lunges forward with a punch, his shoulder drives his elbow, and his elbow drives his hand, flowing smoothly from one joint to the other. His entire arm is like a long whip drawn from his back, reaching far and retracting steadily.

Gradually, Cang Tianci became the best in the routine class. Every time, Chen Xuhua would call him to the front to demonstrate.

After that, every afternoon after school, Cang Tianci would first warm up and practice routines with everyone. Once he reached the required standard, he would get Chen Xuhua's approval and go to the side to practice stances and forms on his own.

Another student asked, "Why is Cang Tianci allowed special treatment?"

Chen Xuhua only replied, "If you train to his level, I'll give you special treatment too."

Yes, this slender body, once deemed "unbalanced" by his Sanda coach, has now become an advantage when practicing routines. With the same bow stance and palm strike, while others extend their arms to their fullest extent after two-thirds of the strike, he can extend his palm an extra half foot.

His slender physique, coupled with the power and fluidity of traditional martial arts, made every stance perfectly measured, as if measured with a ruler. What was once considered a weakness in speed, now, nurtured by the Hidden Dragon Technique and through daily rigorous training, had become part of his unique rhythm. Each time he finished a set of punches, the new students stretching nearby would stop to watch. They couldn't quite put their finger on what was so good about it, but it was simply pleasing to the eye. The stance training and power flow of internal martial arts were silently enriching his competitive routines.

However, progress in martial arts cannot offset the fact that academic performance has declined.

Soon, the results of the monthly exam for the gifted youth program were released. Cang Tianci's name was ranked last in the class.

He stood in front of the results board, looking at his name—from top to bottom, he wasn't in the top ten, nor in the top twenty. His gaze kept moving down, down, until it reached the last name on the last line.

He remembered this time last year, on the same wall, his name was first. Back then, Song Wei ran over and patted him on the shoulder, saying, "You're amazing!" Lin Ruoxi nodded to him, and Lin Wanqing smiled at him from outside the crowd.

His name is now at the very end.

He stood there, staring for a long time. He seemed to sense many eyes watching him. He turned around and went back to his seat.

During the break, Xu Wenyuan called him to his office.

"Tianci, you missed a month and a half of classes, and your total score was only one point away from the second-to-last place. It's already quite an achievement for you to get this score. I hope you continue to work hard, steadily improve, and recover to your previous level as soon as possible. If you have any questions in the future, you can come and ask me."

Cang Tianci nodded and replied, "Yes, thank you, Teacher Xu!"

As he walked out of the office, he remembered his mentor's words: "No rush."

No rush. It's not that I'm not trying, it's that I'm not anxious. It's not that I'm not moving forward, it's that I'm not afraid of going slow.

He knew he was slow. But he also knew that being slow didn't necessarily mean he wouldn't reach his destination.

Cang Tianci left the office and returned to the classroom.

Just as he sat down, Zhao Xiaohu walked in through the back door, pausing as he passed Cang Tianci's seat. He glanced at the exam paper spread out on Cang Tianci's desk and said loudly with a teasing tone, "Wow, you got first place! No wonder you're a top student!"

Cang Tianci remained silent, his pen never stopping. He was calculating a quadratic function problem, seemingly oblivious to Zhao Xiaohu's taunts.

Seeing that he remained silent, Zhao Xiaohu felt bored, turned around and took a few steps, then turned back and added, "It's true what they say, the higher you climb, the harder you fall!"

Zhao Xiaohu's words startled many students who were engrossed in their homework. Everyone turned their gaze towards Cang Tianci. Among these gazes were expressions of sympathy, pity, and anger…

Song Wei was furious. She couldn't believe Zhao Xiaohu could be so shameless. Cang Tianci was injured, unconscious, and suffering from amnesia. Now that he had finally regained his memory, his grades had plummeted. How could anyone be so cruel as to kick him while he was already in such a sorry state?

She glared at Zhao Xiaohu, stood up, walked from the front row to the back, patted Cang Tianci who was writing with his head down, and said loudly, "Tianci, you haven't studied for so many months, and you can still get such good grades. It's really amazing!"

Cang Tianci raised his head, and those curved eyebrows and sweet dimples were like a ray of sunshine hitting his heart, making him feel happy without him even realizing it.

He smiled and said, "Thank you, Song Wei!"

"Seeing you smile so relaxedly, I know you won't stoop to the level of some people. Alright," she patted Cang Tianci's shoulder again and laughed, "you continue with your problems, I won't bother you anymore. I wish you a return to your peak!"

After saying that, she turned around, walked to the front row, and returned to her seat.

Watching Song Wei's retreating figure, Zhao Xiaohu in the back row stood up angrily, opened his mouth as if to say something, but remained silent, simply sitting down sullenly. He knew that Song Wei's father was the captain of the Ji County Criminal Investigation Brigade, a figure even his own father dared not easily provoke. What could he do?

Wang Yaowu leaned in and whispered, "Brother Tiger, don't argue with a woman. She's just good with words."

Zhao Xiaohu's complexion improved.

Wang Xiuzhu, sitting in the front row, was initially also furious. She wanted to stand up and defend Cang Tianci, just like she had done many times when she was a child. But thinking of what happened during the summer vacation, and of Zhao Xiaohu's powerful background, she hesitated. At that very moment of hesitation, Song Wei decisively stepped forward, encouraging Cang Tianci while delivering a sharp blow to Zhao Xiaohu, leaving him speechless. She admired Song Wei's courage and resourcefulness, and felt ashamed of her own hesitation. Why couldn't she be as bold and responsible as Song Wei?

Zheng Tao, sitting in the front row, was reading an original English version of "The Moon and Sixpence." He had made detailed annotations in pencil along the margins of the pages.

When Zhao Xiaohu's voice drifted from the back row, he didn't turn around. For him, Cang Tianci's grades were no longer a concern. He was more concerned with not outperforming Lin Ruoxi in the midterm exams and whether he could win first prize in the provincial English competition at the end of the year.

As for that former rival, that's all in the past.

Lin Ruoxi sat next to Zheng Tao. She had paused for a moment when she heard Zhao Xiaohu's words, but then continued writing her questions.

She got the highest score in the monthly exam. But she wasn't happy.

She remembered last semester when Cang Tianci sat next to her, and the two of them discussed problems; his thinking was always quick and accurate. She never imagined that after just a few months, his grades would...

Will he create another miracle?

She asked herself the question silently, but there was no answer.

Lin Wanqing sat in the first row and did not turn around.

Hearing Zhao Xiaohu's words, she stopped writing. But she didn't turn around—not because she didn't want to, but because she couldn't. She was afraid that if she turned around, tears would fall.

She remembered a month ago, at the Cang family's house in Xiqiao Village, when Cang Tianci held her hand and said, "Wanqing, thank you." His eyes were bright then, even though he wasn't fully recovered. Would his eyes still be bright now?

She gripped the pen tightly, then released it. Head bowed, she wrote a single word on the draft paper—"Wait."

She didn't know what she was waiting for. But she knew she could only wait.