It had been three weeks since Ryu had accepted Fei-Long’s proposal, but due to his cracked ribs, the lessons were delayed. During that time, Ryu used the time to use the healing meditation to speed up his recovery. If he wasn’t, doing that, he was trying to sneak out of the hospital. They had to put a security officer in front of the door to make sure that he didn’t run off.

He hadn’t seen Fei-Long in a while. Last time he did, Fei-Long had given him a 100-page notebook. When Ryu asked what it was for, Fei-Long just smiled and said, “This will be the notebook where you should write down your own thoughts on Martial Arts. You don’t need to, just some way to train your brain mentally.” Ryu just gave him a weird look and then looked down at the notebook that he held in his hands.

Now Ryu was dressed and ready to go where ever he planned on taking him. Ryu just shook his head as he threw his duffel bag onto his shoulder. Fei-Long had said they were going to train at his house, but how was he supposed to get there if no one was here to take him there.

“Are you Ryu?” a voice behind him said. Ryu turned around and saw a Chinese woman, just a little bit shorter than him, wearing a light sweater and a pair of sweat pants. Her hair was curled up into buns on the side of her head.

They were quiet for a moment and she then spoke. “Fei-Long said you were looked as fun as a rock, now I see he was right.”

Ryu was slightly taken aback back the remark, but recovered with his own statement. “ Princess Leia called, she wants her hair back.”

The woman just smiled and stuck her out. “I’m Chun Li. Nice comeback. I’m your ride.”

Ryu shook her hand and told her his name, although he knew she already knew it.

“Well, enough chit-chat. Let’s get going.”

Seven hours later

Ryu and Chun Li were driving down a dirt road that went through some of the best woods Ryu had ever seen. Due to the fact that the road was very rough, they were in a SUV.

“Does this road lead to Fei-Long’s house?”

“This is just the driveway,” Chun Li said with a smile.

Ryu whistled at the thought. “His house must be huge.” They suddenly broke into a large clearing where a somewhat fancy house was. It was made of stone and, although it wasn’t quite a mansion, it was larger than a regular house. Ryu just shook his head. “I’ll never get this guy. This house looks like it belongs in Ireland or something.”

“Actually, that’s what Fei-Long wanted the house to look like,” she said as she pulled the SUV over and got out. “Come on. Fei-Long isn’t here, so you might as well make yourself at home.” Ryu got out of the car and retrieved his duffel bag from the back.

Chun Li took out some keys out of her purse and, after shifting through them, put the key into the lock and opened the. The House inside looked something you would expect from a house made of stone. The floor was made of timber in some rooms, but in bedrooms and the living room, carpet was used.

Ryu, who had lost rack of time, looked up at a grandfather clock to find it was about 5 ‘o’ clock. Ryu realized he hadn’t eaten a thing since breakfast. His stomach growled to say it was empty. Chun Li was behind him and heard the noise. She smiled and said that she better order some food. Ryu then walked across the room and looked at some photos that were over the fireplace.

Some of the photos were of, what Ryu determined, to be his family. One that caught his eye that showed a teenage Fei-Long, probably 18, standing next to an elderly man. On the other side of the man stood a girl who looked to be about the same age. Fei-Long and the girl had full smiles, while the old man had a small grin on his face.

Chun Li walked up next to him and looked at the same photo. “ That’s me, Fei-Long and our teacher, Gen. He taught us Wing Chun Gung-Fu. Fei-Long said if it wasn’t for him, he wouldn’t have become the man he is today.” Ryu looked back at the photo and saw that the girl did look like Chun Li. He wondered why he didn’t see this before.

“How long have you known each other?” Ryu asked.

Chun Li looked at him with a smile. “ It’ll take awhile. But the Chinese food won’t be here for a while. We’ve got time.”

Chun Li sat down in an easy chair and Ryu sat in one across from.

“We’ve been friends since we were kids. Our families knew each, so we got to see each other often. Around when we were 13, we started getting into trouble. We were in the same gang and got in plenty of fights. This was before we knew Martial Arts, so we got beat quite a bit. One day, Fei-Long just had enough and went to Gen to teach him Wing Chun. I joined him because I was sick of it too. We were then about 15. After three years of training, we left the gang and went straight.”

“We’ve stuck together ever since. We did a number of odd jobs, got into street fights. We basically traveled the world together. We fought many people in many different places. Ken in Rome. Birdie in London. Dan in Hong Kong. Sakura in Tokyo. We were pretty close.”

“During that time, Fei-Long began a quest of self discovery. He started to search for a better way of fighting. He was taught by many teachers’ different arts of unarmed combat. After taking a short lesson on Western Boxing, he started to focus on simplicity, and putting efficiency over tradition. Special moves he had created he discarded. He started reading books on philosophy. All this contributed to him becoming who he is today.”

“Also, he became a lot more honest. Emotionally. Before, he was almost like a brick wall. He was only human around me. One day, I brought this issue up with him. He was surprisingly opened minded about it. He started to tear down the wall. He showed anger, love, fear, and sorrow. He used these emotions to fuel himself. He made the most progress that year.”

Ryu sat there, staring at Chun Li. He had noticed that her eyes had a certain glow when spoke of Fei-Long. “You love him, don’t you?”

Chun Li didn’t say anything. She just closed her eyes and nodded. Ryu asked another question, “Does he know?”

Chun Li lifted up her left hand and pointed at her ring finger. “Does this ring lie? We’re engaged. The marriage is seven months away.”

Ryu just smiled. “Congrats.”

Chun Li smiled back. “Thanks.”

Suddenly it occurred to Ryu, they hadn’t seen Fei-Long yet. “Where is Fei-Long?”

Chun Li gave an apologetic look. “I didn’t tell you yet? He’s in jail.”