My absurd experiences in North America over the years

The study door was ajar, and the lights were off. Only the Los Angeles night outside the window seeped in, outlining a blurry silhouette on the edge of the desk.

Li Fu sat in the darkness, a half-smoked cigarette between his fingers. Mei Mei's voice pulled him back from his thoughts.

"Yes," he said, standing up, stubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table, and then turning on the room light.

The room suddenly brightened up, and Taylor Swift was standing in the hallway outside the door, wearing a loose white sweatshirt and with her hair a little messy, as if she had just returned from the recording studio and hadn't had time to change into more casual clothes.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?" Li Fu asked as he walked out of the study.

"I just wrote a chorus, but I just can't seem to get the second half right," Taylor Swift tilted her head, her gaze shifting from the study to him, then she sniffed lightly. "Have you been smoking?"

The first time she saw Li Fu smoking.

"Hmm... I smoked half a cigarette," Li Fu said. He didn't smoke often; most of the time, he just carried cigarettes with him and only smoked one when the atmosphere was right or when he was feeling down.

"What's wrong? Is something troublesome?" Taylor Swift asked.

"No, not at all," Li Fu leaned against the doorframe and shook his head, "but I have to go back to New York tomorrow; the fund's operations are at a critical juncture."

"So soon?" Taylor Swift was clearly disappointed.

"There's nothing we can do. The market is too volatile. If something goes wrong, the loss will be at least hundreds of millions," Li Fu explained, downplaying the potential loss.

Taylor Swift's expression changed very subtly upon hearing this. She paused for a moment, then seemed to listen to the sentence again in a very short time to make sure she hadn't misheard. Finally, her lips twitched, as if she wanted to say something but then swallowed it back.

She didn't want this precious time together to end like this.

However, Li Fu's work was clearly more important.

The corridor fell silent for a second or two.

During that pause, Taylor Swift composed herself, trying to sound more relaxed than before, "Then I should go back... What time is my flight tomorrow?"

"We're getting ready to leave this afternoon," Li Fu said, looking at the blonde girl in front of him with a touch of regret.

Taylor Swift nodded and didn't continue the topic.

She pressed her fingers slightly against the corridor wall, straightened up a bit, and asked with a touch of girlish playfulness, "So, do you have time tonight?"

Li Fu's heart skipped a beat, wondering what she was referring to.

If this future superstar takes the initiative, he really won't be able to withstand it.

To his surprise, Taylor Swift's next words caught him completely off guard: "Teach me a few self-defense techniques, okay? Just in case something like Kanye happens again, at least I'll be able to defend myself."

Li Fu's "expectations" were dashed, and he couldn't help but chuckle. The bright young girl stood in the corridor light, her expression serious, her eyes holding a hint of carefully concealed expectation...

That expectation felt like finding an excuse to get close to him without needing any reason.

"Sure!" Li Fu readily agreed.

He would fulfill this request no matter what.

"Let's get started now!" Taylor Swift said happily, like a little girl whose wish had been fulfilled.

Li Fu took her to the living room, preparing to teach her a three-hit combo: stomping, eye-gouging, and groin kick. He first demonstrated the simplest move: stomping.

He lifted his foot and lightly stomped on the ground. "This move has to be unexpected; stomp down hard with the toe of your shoe."

Taylor Swift usually wears high heels when attending events, and just imagining someone stomping on her with high heels is enough to make you feel incredibly painful.

She mimicked the action, but couldn't bring herself to do it; it was more like she lightly stomped her foot.

"You have to use force with this move because the three movements are connected. You have to stomp hard enough for the opponent to bend over, and it's easier to gouge their eyes when they're bent over," Li Fu said, holding up two fingers in front of her.

Of course, he didn't actually get close; he just drew a line in the air.

"Huh? I have to gouge out eyes?" Taylor Swift hesitated, extending her finger to demonstrate the action. She really couldn't bring herself to do it. "This is too difficult..."

The difficulty she was referring to wasn't the action itself, but rather the psychological hurdle she had to overcome.

"It's not difficult. Just imagine your enemy as the person you hate the most. This is the simplest and most effective trick," Li Fu said earnestly as he taught.

He probably felt that this trick would be incredibly effective in the event of an emergency.

"No, I can't overcome that," Taylor Swift shook her head. "Teach me something else!"

Li Fu thought for a moment, "Then let's try something else. I'll teach you a grappling technique."

Taylor Swift's eyes lit up. "A grappling technique? Sounds more powerful than the one before."

Li Fu stood in the open space in the middle of the living room, turned to the side, and said, "You stand in front of me."

Taylor Swift walked over and stopped in front of him, looking back at him with some confusion, wondering what he wanted her to do.

"If someone attacks you from behind or the side, like when Kanye grabbed the microphone, you can use this move..."

Li Fu reached out and lightly grasped Mei Mei's right wrist. He then made a turning motion with her arm, lowering his weight so that she could first pull her arm inward and then turn it outward.

This move is somewhat more complicated than the three-piece set of stomping, eye gouging, and groin kick.

Taylor Swift wasn't really trying to learn; her wrist rotated a full angle along the arc in his palm, but her eyes kept sneaking glances at Li Fu.

Li Fu slowed down and led her to try twice more, but she still couldn't get it right.

If it were any other teacher, or any other student, they would have lost patience long ago, and might even have yelled at you, "Are you out of your mind? You can't even learn this little thing?"

However, because she was learning from Taylor Swift, he was exceptionally patient and taught her repeatedly without getting tired of it.

Physical contact is inevitable during this process. Sometimes Li Fu would even put his arm around Taylor Swift's shoulder, which outsiders would think was an attempt to hug her.

Taylor Swift didn't care what she learned at all; she cared more about the process. It was a bit like dancing, with tenderness in her eyes and a smile on her lips, completely enjoying herself.

Li Fu quickly discovered her little scheme, so he simply indulged her, repeating the steps as long as she didn't say she had learned them.

For a fleeting moment, he suddenly recalled a classic scene from an old movie he had seen in his previous life: Wong Fei-hung taught Aunt Thirteen grappling techniques in the courtyard so that she could protect herself.

When Wong Fei-hung taught Aunt Thirteen the move of "locking the throat and bending down to snatch the carriage," Aunt Thirteen saw the shadows of two people on the wall, which looked just like they were dancing ballroom dances. So she began to imagine the two of them dancing gracefully and spinning around.

When Wong Fei-hung realized that Aunt Thirteen was lost in thought, he immediately let go of her, and Aunt Thirteen almost fell to the ground.

It can only be said that the grandmaster at that time was still immature in love.

Li Fu was certainly not as clueless about romance as Huang Feihong was back then. When Taylor Swift looked at the two of them on the wall, their shadows stretched long by the living room light, she seemed to have a similar thought, and he immediately cooperated by putting his arm around her shoulder.

Their shadows instantly overlapped, as if they were embracing affectionately.