"Grandpa Qiu said that it will definitely be released this year," Ji Ruochu explained on behalf of the director who was editing the footage and whose hair had turned much whiter.
"I've already heard that three times," Ji Mochen responded glumly with a "3" sign.
"But Dad, it's a really good piece of work, isn't it?" the ten-year-old child said calmly with his own opinion, "And I don't want to go to the martial arts academy to become an action star, I just...like martial arts."
"Really?"
The old father breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he didn't want to do anything dangerous, that was fine.
"You don't have to force yourself if you like it. We can just watch, Tai Chi is also a form of martial arts. Can't we keep practicing Tai Chi?"
At this moment, in Ji Mochen's eyes, Tai Chi was the best of all martial arts!
"So Dad, can I go to the martial arts academy to practice Tai Chi?" Ji Ruochu readily went along with it. First go, then talk.
"..."
"I'd be very sad if I can't even go to this. I'd cry," the child blinked his eyes.
The couple: !!!
And so, Ji Ruochu's already not well-off weekends gained an additional martial arts class, the kind you had to attend every day.
Fortunately the martial arts academy wasn't far from their home. The little guy could jog there in ten minutes.
She was in middle school now. She didn't have to board at school. The Ji family had a house near the school so the family could spend more time together.
But if they could choose, Ji Mochen would rather his daughter board at school so that she couldn't go to that martial arts academy.
"What did Uncle Jiang say to you?"
Seeing her husband tossing and turning, Ling Chujin asked the question that had been on her mind.
The man hesitated. The feeling of powerlessness in his heart grew deeper: "Uncle Jiang asked me how the search for Ruochu's bodyguard was going, and said that teaching a man to fish is better than giving him a fish. As long as our daughter goes to the martial arts academy for a few years, it'd be better than ten bodyguards."
It was these words that made Ji Mochen relax. In recent years, his big brother had been threatened by unknown forces several times, which also made him feel anxious.
Ling Chujin felt the same way. After a long pause, she slowly said: "It seems that it would be good if our daughter really became a celebrity."
At least living in the spotlight, it would be hard for shady people to find an opportunity to make a move.
This was also the reason why the Ji family agreed to let Ji Mochen enter the entertainment industry back then. After all, compared to his two other brothers, he was the most dangerous one.
The facts proved that the Ji family's decision at that time was completely right. After several failures, those people successfully caught the attention of the local government, and ultimately had to give up.
When it came to their own daughter, the couple naturally didn't want to make decisions for her.
Besides, the Ji family was no longer comparable to the past. Protecting her alone was certainly not a problem.
However, the couple calculated everything except for the fact that their child would take this most difficult path.
Admittedly, practicing martial arts was not an unbearable hardship. The younger generation in the industry would more or less learn some moves, but their daughter went to the Capital Martial Arts Academy!
That martial arts academy where anyone randomly picked would be a martial arts champion!
With this momentum, plus Jiang Honglin's recommendation, and their daughter's tendency to always want to do things to the best of her ability, could it be just for simple fitness?
Thinking of their daughter's difficult days ahead, the couple couldn't help feeling distressed for her. Even if this decision would have such magical uses in the future, at this moment it could not alleviate the anxiety of the husband and wife.
Of course, that was still to follow, but for now, ever since Ji Ruochu started learning from her new master, she had been full of energy every day.
At first she only went to the martial arts academy for morning class two hours early, but later she started going all out.
Apart from morning class, after finishing her homework at night she would go out under the pretext of taking a walk.
Ling Chujin had a soft spot for her daughter and was persuaded after some sweet talk and hugs.
On the few days her husband was not home, after asking the bodyguards to protect her daughter, she turned a blind eye.
And when her husband came home...even better! Let him be the bad guy!
Anyway she had to maintain an image as the best mom in the world to her daughter!
How could Ji Mochen not know his wife's intentions? But what could he do, he didn't even have an opportunity to be the bad guy that he wanted to be.
Their daughter was becoming more and more opinionated now. In the matter of going out for walks, apart from having the bodyguards follow closer, even he was unable to stop her.
However, the old father was not sitting around helplessly. He secretly began searching for cases of "dangers you might encounter when walking at night".
He planned that in a few days, he would make his daughter take a good look at them! Even if he couldn't obstruct her, she could at least... come back half an hour earlier right? Walking until 9pm every day, if one didn't know better, they'd think she was out on patrol!
But some things really couldn't stand too much of a nagging. The old father hadn't even started saying his requests yet before he received a call from the police station.
"What? Stalker?"
The couple sprang up from the sofa.
...
"Alright, we'll be right over."
Just as he finished speaking, his daughter's well-behaved voice came from the other end of the phone:
"Dad, don't worry, I'm fine."
"Ruochu, be a good girl and stay at the police station, don't run around, Dad will be right there."
When Ji Mochen hung up, Ling Chujin was already putting on her shoes at the doorway, car keys in hand.
"Don't be afraid, Ruochu is fine."
Ji Mochen rushed forward three to five steps to comfort his anxious wife, not realizing that his own expression wasn't great at the moment either.
