The next day, at six o'clock in the morning, Zora woke up Alex. She covered herself with a scarf, and they walked out of the hotel.
When the hotel attendants saw that the two of them had been in the same room, they were shocked. Some of the waiters and guests were extremely unsettled. How could such a beautiful woman pay so much attention to such a poor young man?
**
Zora and Alex walked to a nearby park and found a small open space with few people. She said to him, "I'll teach you the recitation now. You should remember it carefully and sit with your eyes closed and your mind still."
It took her five minutes to recite it. There were eighty sentences in total, with five words in each sentence, and most of them rhymed. However, to accurately express the main idea, several sentences were extremely awkward to recite.
"You sit down and write out the recitation I just taught you," she said.
He sat on a rock and worked on remembering the recitation he had just been taught. If he forgot something, he asked her again. After only half an hour, he recited it twice to himself, and then happily said, "I have memorized it."
She asked him to recite it to her, and he didn't have one wrong word. She said with a smile, "You've done very well! You should review this recitation every day. Okay, now we'll continue to practice the basic skills I taught you last night."
She demonstrated it once to remind him, and then he practiced by himself.
Occasionally, people who played in the park passed by and saw him practicing the martial arts moves, but he glared back at them.
An old man stood and watched him for two minutes, shook his head, and then said, "Young man, did you make this up? You look strange. You'd better practice our style with us. Although you can't use it to fight, it will strengthen your body. It's much better than your strange boxing."
Alex looked at Zora, and she whispered to him, "Just practice your own style. Who cares about what others do?"
He nodded and continued to practice.
**
They stopped for lunch and then walked to a sandwich shop. He asked, "Did you use these special skills in the restaurant yesterday?"
She shook her head and said, "I was using a different style, which was designed for women. If you want to practice it, I'll teach you. But I don't think it would suit you."
"Oh, no, I'm just asking about it," he said.
"I know you want to ask me to teach you," she said with a smile. "You can watch and see how powerful it is."
She saw a waiter who was carrying two trays of sandwiches. She shot a peanut in his direction and hit the waiter's leg. The waiter lost his balance, cried out, and the two trays full of sandwiches flew into the air. In the blink of an eye, she reached the waiter's side, grabbed his back collar, picked him up, and quickly caught the trays. She collected several of the sandwiches that were falling onto the trays one by one.
"Thank you! That was amazing!" The waiter thanked her profusely. There was a burst of cheering from the other diners in the shop, but she wasn't moved. She just smiled faintly.
Alex knew she did not always take kindly to compliments, but he couldn't help joining in with the rest of the crowd's applause.
When he opened the sandwich wrapping, he was surprised to see that his sandwich had been rearranged. Instead of one full sandwich of ham and cheese, he had two halves of different kinds of sandwiches matched together. He remembered there had been nothing like it in the deli display. Zora must have done this when she was catching the sandwiches on the trays.
"Did you do this?" Alex asked her in surprise.
"I don't have to fight against people. I can show you other skills. I've taught you some martial arts that are much better than the other styles," she said with a smile.
"Thank you," Alex responded gratefully.
**
Over the next few days, Alex practiced with her day and night. When they returned to her room in the evening, she would test him with questions. Under her instruction, he had already mastered her set of martial arts exercises.
That night, in the hotel room, after finishing the test with Alex and answering several of his questions, she said to him, "Now you've learned all the thirty-six routines of the special skills, which make up the foundation. When you really face the enemy, you should adapt to different circumstances, and all the coping methods can evolve from there."
"Thank you," he said seriously. He already regarded the woman as a master.
After that, she took a bath, put on her purple pajamas, and sat down on the bed. He practiced martial arts by himself.
Usually, because she lived alone, she would practice naked after bathing. But since Alex was staying with her this week, she made sure to put on her pajamas before settling into her routine.
When he finished practicing, he washed and played with his phone for a while. A news headline attracted his attention.
[Washington, D.C. police are searching the whole city for the queen of Brunei!]
He remembered that when he had attended the opening ceremony, the queen's position next to the Sultan had been vacant. He had thought that the queen had not attended the opening ceremony because she had not been interested. It seemed now that the queen had disappeared that night.
He scrolled down to the article, which said that the Sultan and Queen were going to leave after attending the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Due to the sudden disappearance of the queen, the Sultan had remained at the West Lake State Guesthouse. He waited there now, hoping for news.
At the bottom of the article was a picture of the queen.
He was shocked when he looked at the woman in the photo. Her bright eyes and snowy skin were beautiful and familiar. She was the woman in white!
Alex looked up and over at Zora, who was sitting on the bed practicing her skills.
"Yes, it's her! She's the queen of Brunei!" he thought.
He thought back to all the odd behaviors he had observed in her during their time together. When she went outside, she wore a scarf, and she had booked the room without her own ID card. She had also said that she had not been in the US for a long time. This explained everything.
And now she was practicing martial arts in this room.
**
At the same time, David was eating with Leona at the Continental Hotel. They were going to be married in a few days, so they were spending more and more time together.
David's phone rang. It was Tom.
Ever since the incident with Fergus, David had considered Alex to be his enemy. He had asked Tom to monitor Alex, and privately contact some martial arts experts to deal with him. After all, Fergus had said that Alex had been terrifying.
"Leona, you keep eating, and I'll go pick up this customer's call. I'll be back in a minute." David said to her, smiled slightly, and walked over to one side.
"David, the underground boxer Sonny Sullivan, and Gordon Lawson, a famous martial arts expert, have agreed to help you with that Alex! They're ready now," said Tom.
"Good! What's the situation with Alex?" David asked. Three days ago, Tom had already reported his whereabouts to him. But he was afraid of Alex's terrible strength and hadn't made a move against him yet.
"It's the same as before. He's staying in the same room with a beautiful woman at the Tinsdale Hotel. He's a lucky guy," Tom said.
"Well, maybe it'll help distract him, so that we can deal with him more easily," David said coldly and continued, "Take them to the Tinsdale Hotel right now. Leona and I will go there at once."
"Miss Marvel is coming too? But I thought Alex had some history with Miss Leona. Should she really be there?" asked Tom.
"He's not that important. And Leona will take my side. After we teach him a lesson, we'll have the police take him away," David said coldly.
"Yes, I understand what you mean. I'll take them to the Tinsdale Hotel now and wait for you," Tom said.
David walked back to Leona and said, "Let's go meet some friends at the hotel."
Leona nodded obediently. They got into the car and went straight to the Tinsdale Hotel.
**
At the Tinsdale Hotel, David met the two men that Tom had brought with him. Sonny was a young man in his thirties who wore black leggings and had arms covered with scars. Gordon was a big man in his forties who wore a training suit and had an evil look on his face.
Seeing the two men, Leona felt scared and hid behind David.
David smiled and shook hands with the two men.
At this time, the owner of the hotel welcomed him and said, "David and Miss Marvel, how good of you to visit. Please excuse me for not coming out before to meet you."
"You're very polite. But I've heard a rumor that there are prostitutes in your hotel," David said with a smile.
"David, absolutely not! Don't believe these lies!" Byron Babcock quickly said. He wondered what David meant.
"No, I'm quite sure. I've been told the boy in room 403 has a prostitute in there right now," David sneered. "Byron, you may have been negligent. You need to look into this!"
Byron was a bit confused by the accusation. He knew there was a woman staying in 403, and he had found her extremely impressive. She hadn't paid for her room in cash or credit but had taken off a three-carat diamond ring from her hand to cover the room fee. The value of the diamond was at least eighty thousand dollars, so, although she didn't use her ID card, Byron had let her stay.
Yet according to the front desk report from a week ago, she had been staying in the room with a young man.
He didn't understand why this mattered to David. But he could only smile and say, "Yes, I'll invite that gentleman to come out."
**
Alex had been practicing basic skills alone in his room when he heard a waiter call him from the hallway, "Mr. Ambrose, please come out to the hallway for a moment."
He was surprised. He opened the door and saw the people standing in the hallway. He also saw Leona, which made him very happy. He looked at David and Leona and said, "Hello, David. Hello, Miss Marvel!"
"Were David and Leona here on their own accord?", he thought.
David snorted coldly and said, "Leona, I'm so sorry. It looks like your friend has gotten mixed up with some prostitute here!"