Zeke found himself smiling contentedly as well, moved by Missy’s earnest idealism. Her values and morals were impeccable. Lacey had indeed taught their daughter well.
However, there was still a part of Zeke that could not bear allowing his daughter to train in the martial arts. The journey in mastering all the various martial arts was long and bitter, requiring an enormous strength of will and absolute determination to face the challenges along the way. What parent could willingly watch their child go through so many hardships, even in the name of training?
“Missy,” Zeke said, stroking her hair. “Learning the martial arts isn’t going to be as easy as you think it’ll be. You’ll go through many challenges as you train. Do you think you can do it?”
Missy nodded earnestly. “I know I can. Actually, daddy, I have to tell you a secret. I… actually tried practicing the arts before. I know it’s not easy, but I know I can do it.”
“Oh?” Zeke asked, astounded. “You practiced the arts before? Who taught you?”
“I learned it myself,” Missy replied abashedly, her grin growing cheeky. “I saw a few books in your room once, so I read them to try and practice the forms in them. But there were a lot of words I didn’t understand, so I didn’t really learn a lot, I guess.”
Zeke was hard-pressed to contain his shock now. The books in his room were not just martial arts books - they were ancient scrolls of the old martial forms the Carter family had given to him as compensation. The contents of those scrolls were written in archaic language that was notoriously hard to understand. Even an adult would have trouble reading those scrolls.
Missy was still a kindergartener. How much of the old scrolls could she have truly understood? It was impossible.
“Missy, tell daddy the truth,” Zeke began seriously. “You’re not joking, are you? If you don’t understand the words inside the scrolls, how could you have read them?”
Mr. Collins smiled somewhat bitterly. “I say, Great Marshal, has it been some time since you last took care of Missy? When I tested her just now, I discovered that her literacy is just as good as any high schooler’s. Her vocabulary is exceedingly good. You do know that, don’t you?”
It was Zeke’s turn to smile awkwardly. Unquestionably, Lacey had done all the heavy lifting in Missy’s education. She had taught her to read and write while Zeke had been far too distant all the time. Starting from now onwards, Zeke vowed to do a better job.
His daughter was a prodigy, more flexible, strong, and powerful than any other normal person. Her comprehension was beyond anything he had ever seen. Mr. Collins was not wrong to call her talent one in a million.
“Missy,” Zeke began carefully, “can you show what you learned to daddy? How about you spar with that man over there?”
Zeke pointed at Sesame Cookie. Missy looked at him curiously, without a single shred of fear in her eyes even though he was an adult. For a moment, Zeke was worried she was overestimating herself.
Missy then nodded. “Okay. Please advise me if you have anything to say, uncle.”
Thoughtfully, Zeke watched his daughter. She probably learned that particular line of martial arts etiquette from the movies.
Sesame Cookie just laughed loudly, walking up to pat Missy’s head. “Go easy on me when we spar later, little girl.”
“Okay,” Missy said with an endearing smile. Her chubby cheeks bounced slightly as she nodded.
The two opponents faced each other. Zeke waved a hand, and the sparring match began.
Missy’s hand shot out, slamming towards Sesame Cookie. Her hand had not even touched him when he staggered backwards comically and sat onto the ground.
He coughed convincingly. “You’re too good for me, little girl. You’ve defeated me. I’ll admit that.”
The crowd was speechless. Anyone with eyes could see that Sesame Cookie was just humoring Missy and not taking the sparring match seriously.
Zeke frowned. Sesame Cookie thinks I’m joking with him by asking him to fight a little girl.
He scowled at the man. “You better take it seriously, Sesame Cookie. Or don’t blame me for being impolite.”
Sesame Cookie paused mid fake cough. Upon seeing Zeke’s scowl, he abruptly realized that the other man had not been joking with him.
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