Chapter 14

True to Jintao's words they were later picked up by Leifang's parents. This time, instead of the very expensive Mercedes they were picked up by a limousine. The two of them sat down in the seat row across from Jintao and Zeng, both of them dressed to impress.

Leifang explained her that the Restaurant they were going to was located in Causeway Bay in the central of Hong-Kong Island, and that the name was derived from South of Hollywood Road. It was mostly an entertainment zone that had many international restaurants and clubs located there, but the one they were going to served mostly Chinese food.

Hitomi was rather surprised that they wouldn't go to a place that was more extravagant, like Causeway Bay, which was nearer to where Leifang lived but once they arrived she saw that it was clearly one of the more expensive places and one would probably only get a table if they got a reservation.

When she asked if they had one Jintao chuckled and explained. "We always have a reservation. This Restaurant belongs to my wife," He got out of the car when the driver opened it for them, helping each of the ladies out personally. "She has three in total and this one is her newest. She opened it when SoHo started to become more fashionable in recent years. At first I thought she was mad, but it seems that her sixth sense was, once again, right in that regard. She used to be a cook, you see."

"Really? I love to cook myself." Hitomi said. "Do you think your wife could give me a few recipes that I could try?"

"I will ask her later." Leifang said, joining the conversation.

"Thanks." After they entered a woman, who Hitomi figured was the head waitress, approached Zeng, speaking to her in Mandarin and bowed before leading the four of them to a table that was a little more secluded from the other ones.

Another waitress approached their table, handing out the menus while the head waitress herself delivered them a bottle of Shaoxing Lao Jiu. As Leifang would later explain to her, it her father's favorite and Hitomi found herself not being able to say no when she was asked if she wanted some.

A little can't do any harm she figured as they clanked their glasses and took a sip from the reddish liquid. She wasn't a huge expert on wine but she was very sure it was a rather dry one and, letting the taste sink in a little more, decided that she liked it well enough.

Afterward they ordered their food, her friend relaying her order to the waitress. A few minutes passed then all of a sudden Leifang's mother got out of her seat, telling her husband something then leaving to walk into the kitchen.

"Occupational disease." he commented. He refilled his glass then aimed his gaze directly at the German. "I didn't manage to ask this earlier, but what are you doing right now? Occupation wise I mean."

"I'm currently studying, I major in pedagogy, but I'm also hoping to get a degree in sports and sociology. Also German studies, but that is everyone's favorite secondary subject."

"Oh, so you want to be a teacher?" he asked.

"Something like that, yeah. I figured it would certainly help me if I want to have a Dojo for myself one day, and if that doesn't work, well I always liked children." she flashed a smile at the man, who rose a brow.

"That is good. If only my daughter," he looked pointedly. "Would be thinking about her neglected studies."

"Father!"

He lifted his hands in a placating manner, a thin smile on his face, before speaking again. "I'm not rushing you, I'm mainly saying it so that I can, with good conscience I might add, tell your mother that I breached the subject to you. Of course I would be pleased if you started to continue your studies." he added as an afterthought.

Hitomi watched her friend who rolled her eyes at her, then took a sip from the wine, placed the glass back onto the table and ran her fingertip along the rim. "I promise that I'll think about it." she said.

"Your mother will be pleased to hear that." He glanced towards the kitchen doors, shaking his head. "If she doesn't return in a few minutes I can safely assume she took over the cooking."

"Has she done that before?" the brunette inquired, finishing the last of her wine and nodding when Jintao offered her to refill it.

Leifang raised her hand to her lips, trying and not really succeeding to stifle a giggle. "She sure did. Mother can be a downright tyrant in the kitchen. She also isn't all too keen if you criticize her food too much."

The Karateka blinked at that. "How so?"

"Hmm, I think it was about 23 years ago in Shanghai, you see we're originally from there, when I first met her." the older man told her. "I managed to get my first big deal and some associates and me went into this restaurant we heard about. I don't know what I ordered, I think it was Chun Pei Ngau Yuk, but well it didn't taste very good, and I was so arrogant at that day and said as much to the waiter and that he should 'relay it to the dimwit that made this disaster'. And true enough he did, as I learned when a rather furious young cook came out of the kitchen, right at me, kitchen knife in her hand twirling dangerously between her fingers like it was only a pen. I really thought that she would attack me."

Hitomi tried to imagine all this, a more petite version of her friend, all dressed up in a cook uniform, handling a knife like that so casually while probably shaking with fury at the time. "What did you do, did you apologize to her?"

"No, I told her exactly what I thought about her food. I think the only thing holding her back at that moment was the owner standing beside her. She left without saying a word." He emptied his glass and placed it onto the table. "I was given another dish and had completely forgotten about her, until my associates and me left the establishment, and outside I found her, waiting. It seemed that her shift had been over shortly before she burst out of the kitchen."

The corner of his lips turned up into a slight smile. "I was just about to say something when she slapped the rest of the food right into my face, asking me if I liked it better now."

"Oh my," Hitomi couldn't keep the grin of her face as the image of what he just told her popped into her mind. From what she saw the woman didn't seem to be the type to strike out like that. "What did you do then?"

"I calmly asked for her number and if she wanted to go on a date with me. She was so confused that she actually did just that." Both girls giggled at that. It did explain a little bit to Hitomi where Leifang got her impulsiveness from.

She looked over to her friend, who had a smile on her face, looking like she was reliving fond memories from long ago, and she tried picturing how it must have been when Leifang heard that story the first time.

"I like to say that my dear daughter took completely after her mother, aside from the interest in martial arts." he said.

"Father!" Leifang giggled and her father only shrugged.

"It's true." He looked at Hitomi. "But I'm sure that my wife is happy that my daughter made such a good friend with her 'Martial Arts nonsense' as she likes to call it. And such a talented one as well."

"Oh please." Hitomi tried to hide the blush that was creeping onto her cheeks. She was used to being complimented about her fighting prowess but it was somehow different when it came from the father of the person whom she regarded as her best friend.

"Your daughter is also very talented." she said after a moment of trying to suppress her blush.

"That she is. It's just too bad that she didn't take up Wing Chun as I did."

"Not for lack of trying," Leifang reminded him, a teasing tone in her voice. "I tried very hard, but in the end it was you who gave up and said I could choose whatever I liked to learn." She raised her hand, placing it where her heart was. "And in my heart I knew that it was the Tai Chi Quan that was calling out to me..."

"I know I know..."

"Everything in the world exists within the Tai Chi" they finished together, looking each other in the eye, neither blinking for several moments as Hitomi watched them until Leifang broke the staring contest and looked down onto the table.

"And what are you two planning for the next few weeks?" he asked Hitomi, his voice betraying no emotion of what had just transpired.

"Uhm, well it's my first time here so I was hoping that Leifang could show me some interesting places. Maybe go to the beach if the weather is nice, and well there's one place I definitely wanna check out." she told him, a bit embarrassed about the last part.

"We have a few nice beaches, though you might want to avoid those that are more known than others, but Leifang knows about that better than I do." he brushed his fingers across his goatee. "I hope you two will have fun. And before I forget, your mother and I will leave on another business trip tomorrow evening, so we won't be seeing each other again before you return home."

"That's too bad. But it was nice meeting you Mr. Gāo." Hitomi said.

"Likewise."

"Mother is returning." Leifang said tersely after glancing towards the doors leading to the kitchen.

"Good, that means she hasn't taken over the kitchen." Jintao said, turning towards his wife as she sat down.

The rest of the evening was spend in a pleasant atmosphere, but it was undermined by the tension that was surrounding father and daughter after their last talk and Hitomi found herself joining her friend in her silence, only joining in when spoken to and then only in short sentences.

It was about 11pm when they returned to Leifang's apartment. Their faces were a bit flushed from the alcohol that they had been drinking during dinner and they were a bit tipsy, evidenced by the fact that they took longer to pull off their heels than normal.

The two friends plopped down onto the sofa, looking out of the window across the skyline of Hong Kong, neither one uttering a word and for minutes the only sound you could hear was the sound of their breathing.

Hitomi raised her hands and undid the pony tail, letting her hair cascade down, and ran a hand through it to untangle it a little. Not that it would matter much, since she had to do it again in the morning, but it kept her occupied until her friend would choose to talk what was on her mind.

After a few more minutes the Chinese broke the silence. "My father took his Wing Chun very serious when he was younger. Not so much in recent years, but when I was younger he encouraged me very much to learn it as well, since he thought I'd inherited his talent, but I didn't find it very interesting at all until something happened that made me change my view on it."

She let a sigh pass her lips. "He was half right. The talent was definitely there but I just couldn't get into Wing Chun as much as he did. I learned the movements but the passion wasn't there. In the end he gave up and I took up Tai Chi Quan under a different Sifu with his blessing, but I knew deep down that he was very disappointed," She turned towards her and Hitomi met her yes, locking onto her gaze and never once looking away from those beautiful dark brown eyes. "And still is to this day. I hoped he had gotten over it over the years, but today showed me otherwise... I think he'll never forgive me for this."

"But he seemed to be ok earlier."

"On the outside yes, but I felt it in his gaze, the way he was looking at me. Deep inside he wishes that it wouldn't be Tai Chi of which I talk with such passion and no matter what I do he will always feel like this." she shook her head with a sigh, her shoulders slumping in the process. "Well at least he seemed to take a shine on you. I don't want to imagine what would've happened if he disliked you."

"I can hardly imagine that to be honest." Hitomi admitted. Mr Gāo seemed nice enough. Maybe not the greatest in expressing his emotions, with his lack of smiles, but the few he gave were genuine.

"Well that is because you met the nice him. The not-so-nice him is quite different but you would really need to rile him up for that. After all he did forbid me to practice Tai Chi once and I didn't dare disobey at the time."

"Why was that anyway?"

"I kinda beat up the son of an associate because he was feeling me up."

"Wow, guess I dodged a bullet there, huh?"

"Like you wouldn't imagine." the Chinese chuckled. Hitomi scooted over a little closer to her friend, who did the same, and put her right arm around the other's shoulder. Almost simultaneously they leaned their heads against one another, gazing out of the window once more.

"I'm glad you came to visit me."

"I'm glad I visited."

Hitomi-sensei please teach me a lot!

I figured having that as her major focus for the future would be an interesting idea. It certainly would help her if she decides to have her own dojo. Now the major focus here was showing some more tidbit's of Leifang's lovely family life.

Stay tuned for the next update. See you next week.