My Wife Came From A Thousand Years Ago

Chapter 59: Mainly because I don’t want to lose the inheritance

The heavy snow had been falling for a full day and night.

It continued the next morning. Xu Qing climbed out of bed and stood by the window to look outside. All he saw was a world blanketed in white.

Jiang City hadn’t seen snow like this in a long time. The local news was all over it, with headlines like “First Time in Ten Years” and “The Biggest Snowfall in Over a Decade” flooding the media.

“You’re up so early? You could sleep a little longer.”

Xu Qing, still wrapped in his pajamas, went to the bathroom. Just as he was about to return to his room, Jiang He’s door opened. She was wearing a sweater and holding her long sword, ready to practice martial arts.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Jiang He said.

“Habit?”

“Yeah.”

“You should change that,” Xu Qing shook his head as he shuffled back to his room in cotton slippers. “On snowy days like this, you should just hide under the covers until noon, get up for a meal, and then crawl back into bed… Now that’s what I call enjoyment.”

“…”

Jiang He didn’t respond, instead calming her breathing and preparing her stance.

“Whew… Ahhh.”

Back under his blanket, Xu Qing let out a long breath. The room had heating, but it couldn’t compare to the warmth of his bed. Crawling out had been cold, but coming back in felt wonderful.

“Don’t close the door, I want to see if I can learn something.” He called out.

He’d left his bedroom door open on purpose, and Jiang He’s door was open too. One was lying in bed; the other was standing in her room. From across the living room, they could see each other with just a glance. Jiang He felt awkward and was about to shut the door when Xu Qing stopped her.

“You… you haven’t even gotten out of bed.”

“I’m just lying down, not naked or anything. See, I’m still wearing clothes.” Xu Qing leaned back against the bedhead, shaking his sleepwear at her. “It’s fine.”

Jiang He thought about it. He did wander around in pajamas often, so she didn’t say anything more and turned back to adjust her focus, continuing to practice her sword forms.

The three-foot long sword felt heavy in Xu Qing’s hands, but in Jiang He’s, it seemed as light as a toy sword in the hands of an old man at the park. Her movements were swift and fierce, every strike precise and sharp.

There were no fancy or unnecessary moves. Even within the small confines of her room, she deftly stepped and shifted, every strike brimming with power.

Normally, Xu Qing would cheer her on, but today he stayed quiet, snapping photos with his phone. Jiang He, in this moment, seemed completely different from her usual self behind a computer.

A fierce lady knight, versus a silly homebody.

“You know, if you practiced outside in the snow, it’d look even better.” He praised her after she finished her routine.

“With no special effects, just a camera, it’d look like a movie.”

Other people’s scenes were fake. His? The real deal.

“It’s cold outside.”

Jiang He sheathed her sword with a clang, folded her arms, and resumed her usual silly posture—a stance she must’ve picked up from Xu Qing—her hands tucked in like a proper farmer’s pose.

“You’re afraid of the cold?” he asked.

“I’m more resistant than you, but that doesn’t mean I’m immune.”

“Oh.”

Xu Qing lost interest, swiped through his photos, then snuggled back into his blanket for more sleep.

Martial arts like this were pointless. What good was resisting cold? It seemed more suited for a frail scholar…

As he closed his eyes, a thought struck him. He suddenly sat up and crawled out of bed. “Hey, does your martial art improve health?”

“Practicing martial arts is meant to strengthen the body.”

Jiang He was preparing to wash up when she heard him. She turned and rolled up her sleeves, flexing her fists. “I’m way stronger than you.”

“I know you could probably break a tree… I mean, how exactly does it improve health?”

“It just does.”

“…”

Xu Qing licked his lips, grabbed his phone, and opened Baidu to search.

A moment later—

“Teach me!”

“Huh?”

“I think martial arts are part of our traditional culture. It’d be a shame if they were lost…” Xu Qing eagerly got out of bed, cracking his knuckles, ready to practice.

“…”

Jiang He gave him a baffled look, wondering why he’d suddenly changed his mind.

“Come on, I’ll train hard and aim to be a martial arts master. Is this the right stance?”

Dressed in sleepwear and cotton slippers, Xu Qing struck the pose she’d taught him before, looking comically serious.

Martial arts were great, and stance training was too.

But his body didn’t cooperate. Within ten minutes, his legs were shaking, his arms drooping, and his posture crumbling.

“Raise your hands higher.”

Jiang He, now sitting at her computer and munching on an apple, glanced back and corrected him.

“How long did you last the first time you did this?” Xu Qing asked, struggling to hold the stance.

“About… half an incense stick’s time.”

“How long is that? In minutes.”

“Ten, maybe fifteen minutes.”

“Huh?”

Xu Qing looked at the clock, deflated, and collapsed onto the couch, stretching out his limbs. “Only ten minutes?”

By that standard, he was practically a martial arts prodigy, not much worse than Jiang He.

“It’s different,” Jiang He shook her head, serious. “I started training young. At first, it was ten minutes, then half an hour, then an hour. I’ve been practicing for over a decade.

You’re starting late, and your stamina is terrible. You get winded just running a little…”

“Enough, I get it.”

Xu Qing sighed. By that standard, no one these days had a good foundation. Even staircases now had escalators…

How long had it been since he ran?

Aside from that time he ran into a tree with Jiang He, or that brief sprint in the autumn rain… he could count his yearly runs on two hands.

“Martial arts require consistent practice. Progress comes bit by bit. If you want to be a martial arts master…”

“No, I don’t. I just want to stay healthy.”

“…That’s much easier. Just stick with it,” Jiang He nodded thoughtfully. “Let’s stop here for today. If you keep at it, soon you’ll manage half an hour, and then I’ll teach you some moves.”

“Once I learn, can I go shirtless and punch snow without feeling cold?” Xu Qing asked.

He’d seen people doing that in the snow, even older folks swimming in the freezing Songhua River.

“Why do you have such weird… urges?” Jiang He couldn’t understand his need to be shirtless in the snow.

“No reason, just asking. It’s not weird at all.”

Xu Qing shook his head. He really was just curious.

The first snow of winter was also the day he started taking martial arts seriously.

“Does this make you my master?”

“Not… really?”

“Then how about I call you ‘auntie’?”

“Huh?” Jiang He looked back, confused.

“Nothing.”

Xu Qing waved it off. “Forget I said anything.”

He didn’t want to lose an arm, nor did he want Jiang He… Bah, that wasn’t even a possibility.

This life was cozy enough. Plenty of free time to be idle.

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