Chương 10: Blacklisted

"Good news first," said Lin Che, craning his neck upwards to meet his wife's eyes.

"The mannequins have been exterminated," she replied.

"All of them. My uncle dealt with them personally." Lin Che's arms lost the tension he hadn't realised had been there since the start of this loop.

"That's lovely."

"The bad news," she continued, "is that he won't sanction any further techniques to teach you."

"Why not?" Shen Yue pulled out a wooden chair from beneath the desk and placed it parallel to the mat Lin Che was on. She sat herself down and sighed.

"You haven't formally been introduced to the family. In his view, you're a mortal who married in — which means, until you've gone through the channels, you're not recognised as a member."

"What proper channels?"

"Introductions to the elders and an initiation ceremony. There's a sequence to it, but honestly it's not as formal as you're imagining it to be."

"Alright," said Lin Che.

"So when can we start?" Shen Yue was quiet for a moment.

"You're being blocked from it." He looked at her, stunned.

"Blocked?"

"There are certain members of the family who are opposed to your background. They're using procedural grounds to delay the introduction… indefinitely." She sighed and shot him a defeated glance before looking away.

"It's not something I can override unilaterally." Lin Che sat with this for a moment, trying to reason any way — any possible justification the two could have to formally introduce himself to the family. Despite not being sure of the procedures, he felt a sudden lightbulb in his mind:"So they look down on me enough to block my access to anything," he began.

"But not enough to have blocked the marriage in the first place." Shen Yue looked down slightly. It lasted maybe two seconds before she recovered, but that was enough time for him to understand and immediately wish he had never said anything out loud.

"Sorry," he said. She moved on immediately.

"How did you get on with the Liuhe Breathing Method?"

"Uh, I'm not too sure. I think I've completed the first three harmonies, but the fourth is still giving me some trouble." In an instant, Shen Yue was on the floor just centimetres away from him. She slapped the mat a couple of times in barely-masked excitement, but Lin Che could still feel hints of that awkwardness from earlier.

"Show me," she smiled.

"You're meant to be months away from second harmony." Lin Che closed his eyes and ran the first and second harmonies — he felt the sequential breath and the Qi holding its shape for much longer than this morning. The form felt more deliberate this time round, but was on the brink of dissipating, sort of like flexing an overworked muscle: it moved, but with great difficulty and at lesser motion.

He moved to the third harmony, letting the Qi gather at his root gate, before compressing it and holding for eight seconds. He released the Qi and it moved upwards before accumulating at his shoulder blades. He held it there, and felt the valve resist, before it gave way and the Qi pushed through to the base of the throat. He held the Qi there for eight counts before releasing. The full loop completed. He opened his eyes.

Shen Yue was watching him with narrowed eyes, and he could have sworn he could see a flicker of Qi in her iris. It was blue. She ruffled her brows before standing up and sitting back down on her chair. Lin Che came to understand that his wife preferred having this sort of aloof power dynamic, despite her burger-eating mannerisms.

"You did the third harmony in an afternoon," she said.

"I'm not sure whether to congratulate you or be shocked. It takes most of our disciples weeks to get there, and that's with them spending most of their days in a Qi-accumulating array." Lin Che raised a few fingers to his face, pretending to push a pair of imaginary glasses to the bridge of his nose.

"I guess you could say I'm kind of impressive," he joked in an overexaggerated voice. Shen Yue stared blankly. Lin Che coughed twice to dispel the atmosphere.

"Anyway, is this talent good enough to be recognised by the mighty Shen clan? Enough for a formal introduction?" Shen Yue hesitated.

"About that… I was not meant to give you the Liuhe Breathing Method either, so no one knows you have been practising it. If they find out, I could be in a lot more trouble than I already am."

"Glad to hear you're already sharing sect secrets with me. Maybe you could accidentally leave some QR codes open once I've completed this technique, and, hypothetically, maybe they could be for techniques which are the natural progression to the Liuhe Breathing Method. Just hypothetically, of course." That joke got a small laugh.

"We'll see how I feel," she replied. Shen Yue pushed herself off the chair and picked up the bag she left in the hallway.

"I'll make something to eat," she said as her left foot moved past the threshold to the kitchen.

"Actually," Lin Che interrupted.

"I wanted to ask. Xu Fang mentioned wanting to have dinner with us. To meet you, I mean." Shen Yue turned.

"I'll order food in," he added.

"I didn't want you to have to do anything for it, and my cooking is, well, not something I'd inflict on a guest."

"Or yourself," she added.

"Or myself," he confirmed.

"Would you be free tonight?" She considered this for a moment, before giving him a nod. Just as she left the kitchen, she flicked a couple of plums into her palm and walked in the direction of the living room. Lin Che stayed on the mat for a moment longer, before opening his messaging app and tapping on the starred contact. wife said you can come over tonight Ding! The notification came just moments later. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. when is tonight?

come for around 7 or earlier if you can she seems hungry i'll bring my finest suit Xu Fang arrived at half past six on the dot, which was most uncharacteristic of him. He wore a jacket that was noticeably nicer than the one he'd had on Friday night, and was also carrying a small paper bag.

"I brought dessert," he said, holding it up.

"The small place on Renmin Road had a deal for the almond pastries."

"You didn't have to do that," said Lin Che, already holding his arm out to receive the package.

"I know I didn't have to." He handed it over and looked past Lin Che into the apartment.

"So where's the lucky lady?"

"Living room." Xu Fang smoothed the front of his jacket with both hands, which was the closest he got to being nervous, and stepped inside the living room. Shen Yue had already turned off the television when she heard the front door open. She was wearing the same clothes as earlier, which isn't to say that she didn't put in effort, but more so that she had a knack for always dressing well. Xu Fang stopped walking. He turned to Lin Che with an expression of profound betrayal.

"You didn't tell me," he said.

"Tell you what?"

"That she was—" He gestured loosely in Shen Yue's general direction."You know."

"I genuinely don't." Xu Fang turned back to Shen Yue and produced his most presentable smile.

"Xu Fang," he said, extending out a hand.

"I've known this one since we were sixteen. I want you to know that most of what he's told you about me is probably underselling it." Shen Yue looked at him and his extended hand. She shook it gently, only because she could sense the emotional toll not doing so would place upon this strange man in front of her.

"He hasn't told me much," she said. Xu Fang tilted his neck back to Lin Che.

"You didn't talk about me?"

"I mentioned you."

"You mentioned my name. That's not the same as talking about me." He shook his head with great sorrow and followed Shen Yue into the kitchen.

"I apologise on his behalf. He's been like this the entire time I've known him."

"I believe it," said Shen Yue.

"See," said Xu Fang, pointing back at Lin Che.

"She believes it."

They ordered food on the sofa, Lin Che pushed to the corner as Xu Fang and his wife started collectively making jokes at his expense.

"There's a place that opened recently," said Xu Fang.

"It's an Indian restaurant. Someone at Lao Chen's mentioned it, and I've been waiting for an excuse to try it." He reached across and took the phone directly from Lin Che's hand entirely.

"You'll like it. Both of you."

"I'll eat most things," said Lin Che.

"You say that, but you picked the onions out of everything for about three years."

"I'm a changed man."

"He's a changed man," Xu Fang confirmed to Shen Yue, already scrolling through the menu. Xu Fang ordered with utmost professionalism, clearly skilled in the art of ordering delivery. He had clearly researched this restaurant in advance and tapped a couple of times: a curry, some naan, two or three sides, a rice dish, and a second curry which he said was "necessary for a comparison." Lin Che looked at the total.

"That's a lot of food."

"It's a first impression," said Xu Fang.

"You don't make a first impression twice." He set the phone down and accepted the tea Shen Yue placed in front of him. She had disappeared earlier, and the kettle had droned on whilst the two school friends bickered with one another.

"Thank you. You're very gracious," he said.

"Unlike some people."

"You're a guest," said Shen Yue.

"Exactly. A guest. Someone who should be made to feel welcome." He shot a look at Lin Che.

"Some hosts could learn from this."

"You've been here twenty minutes," said Lin Che.

"And in those twenty minutes, your wife has offered me tea, and you've criticised my food order."

Approximately half an hour later, Lin Che and Shen Yue were sitting around the table as an overly eager Xu Fang stood distributing the food across the table. Shen Yue looked at the spread with genuine curiosity, examining the colour of something and giving each dish a sniff before taking out a spoon to serve.

"No, no," Xu Fang said, gently slapping her hand.

"Allow me to serve you all. There's an art in this."

"Oh, I wasn't aware of that. I've never had this kind of food before," she said. Xu Fang looked up.

"Really?"

"No, I haven't travelled much."

"Then start with this one." He pushed a dish towards her.

"And this. Not that one yet — work up to that one." He served her spoonfuls from each container before doing the same for himself. Lin Che glanced at his friend with the eyes of a starving Victorian child, before serving himself the same dishes.

"It's good," said Shen Yue, blowing on a steamy spoon.

"It's very good," Xu Fang corrected, his fingertips already yellowed with turmeric and oil.

"There's a difference." He leaned back in his chair with the satisfaction of a man vindicated.

"Though I will say — and this is not a criticism — the real thing is something else. I had a curry in Chennai after graduation that I still think about."

"You've been to India?" asked Shen Yue.

"I backpacked for eight months straight after finals." He reached for a glass of water.

"Started in Japan, came down through Southeast Asia, crossed into South Asia from Myanmar. Ended up in India for about two months because I kept not leaving."

"Why didn't you leave?"

"The food, mainly. And then I met some people and the food became an added bonus." He said this in a way that suggested a longer story he wasn't telling.

"But the food was amazing. I've had Thai curries, Vietnamese curries, Japanese curries — all extraordinary, but all completely different. And people make the mistake of comparing them as if they're the same category of thing." Lin Che ate his food and dared not interrupt. Once Xu Fang got going, no amount of conversation could stop him.

"Thai curries are about balance," Xu Fang continued.

"You've got your heat, your coconut, your aromatics, you know, galangal and kaffir lime and lemongrass — everything works in concert, and nothing is louder than anything else." He pointed at the dish in front of Shen Yue.

"Indian curries are different. They're about depth and building layers of spice on spice, and the whole thing feels more like a conversation between a hundred ingredients that have been having the same argument for centuries."

"That's a lot of feeling about curry," said Shen Yue.

"I've a lot of feeling about curry," replied Xu Fang.

"The point is: they're not comparable. People say which is better and the question just doesn't make sense. It's like asking whether a mountain is better than a river." Shen Yue nodded and reached for the second curry, serving herself a portion. Xu Fang looked pleased.

Once the conversation lulled down slightly, Xu Fang leaned back in his chair and motioned his hand to pat his stomach. He then realised his hands had food all over them, so instead just exhaled slightly and leaned back more.

"So," he said.

"The wedding."

"It was small," said Lin Che.

"Just family."

"I know, I know. I'm not still upset about it." He waved a hand.

"Okay, I'm slightly still upset about it, but I understand." He looked at Shen Yue.

"How was it? Both sides getting along?" Shen Yue set down her cup of tea.

"It was a lovely atmosphere," she said, without any hesitation at all.

"Both families were very warm with each other. It's a shame you couldn't be there, but it was a nice evening."

"Small weddings usually are," said Xu Fang, a bit more feeling in his voice. He pointed at Lin Che.

"I told him years ago, if he ever got married, to just have a small wedding with the people who matter." Xu Fang stared at her for a moment, before pointing at Shen Yue and looking Lin Che in the eye.

"I like her," he announced.

"Genuinely. I was prepared to like her because she makes you a bit more normal, but I actually do like her."

"Thank you," said Shen Yue.

"Don't thank me. It's a high bar, but you have Xu Fang's approval!" he grinned and laughed to himself. He picked up the box of almond pastries and offered them to his hosts.

"You've done well," he said to Lin Che, delivering an official verdict. Lin Che drank his tea.

"I know," he said.