The old man then bowed to Ip Man and a servant girl took him to the door. His wife was there and looked with sad concern at the boy, "Ip Man we should let him stay here. When he wakes up we can ask him what happened."
Ip Man puts his right hand on his wife's back in reassurance. He then took her gently by the arm and led her out of the room.
His wife is a beautiful woman in her early 20s wearing a green qipao decorated with flower patterns. She had an angular face and tied brownish-black hair.
This was all a part of Tony's plan, even including the doctor that was called to check his pulse. In order to feign an injured appearance Tony simply used some make-up techniques.
And to induce the weak feeble look, he swallowed a herbal pill that he invented which decreases the amount of oxygen that is taken into the red blood cells in his body.
Two days later in the morning Tony intentionally created a small amount of noise which woke up Uncle Wang who's room is close by. Hearing the noise Uncle Wang went to his room to check.
In a moment he saw an old man enter the open doors of the room with an excited expression. Tony bowed to him humbly, "Thank you for taking me in Sir."
Uncle Wang nods and tells him to stay while he goes off to tell Master Ip Man that he has woken up. Soon came in the room was Ip Man and his wife.
"How do you feel," Ip Man asks in concern with a calm tone.
"Thank you for your kind effort Sir, may I know what is the master's name," he said.
"Ip, Ip Man," he introduces himself in a mild manner, "how did you get so injured?"
"I was traveling this city as an orphan and as a walking group of men came out and attacked me," his face was slightly angry as he pretended to be in thought of a past event, "they left me on the street after stealing my things. Luckily I saw your home in the distance with lights on."
"What a violence in the city," his wife Mrs. Wing Sing sympathizes with the attack.
"Mr. Ip Man," Tony said and got down on both knees, "please let Hui Liang stay in your home as a servant to repay a lifetime of indebtedness to you."
Ip Man and his wife exchange glances, then he lifts him off the floor with both hands. With a smile he said, "There's no need to go down on your knees Hui Liang. We welcome you to stay here."
"I'm truly gracious," he took a deep bow towards them.
At night during dinner time Ip Man took a bite of the food from one of the plates. Immediately exclaiming, "Uncle Wang, who cooked this food? I haven't ever tasted something so delicious."
"Mr. Ip Man it's Hui Liang who cooked the food," Uncle Wang replied with a happy smile.
Looking at the young boy standing on the side, Ip Man asks him, "Hui Liang how did you learn how to cook such cuisines?"
"Mr. Ip Man, I always had a talent from birth to cook using simple ingredients," he answered with a slight bow of his head.
"Good," Ip Man smiled and complimented with a nod of his head.
It's really no joke that the food is delicious since he has internalized ideas from different schools of cooking. All the way from Michelin restaurants to simple street food.
In the next week Tony would cook totally different types of cuisines using simple ingredients each day. Even before Ip Man asks, he already knows the taste of the cooking the family wants.
While doing works like cleaning the floor and water plants Tony would get the chance to watch Ip Man practice his Wing Chun.
One day in the afternoon while brushing away some leaves outside the courtyard he observes through his peripheral vision Ip Man practicing a set of techniques on the wooden dummy.
When he got to cleaning the doorway he saw Ip Man leave the living room. So he set away his broomstick against the wall and walked to the wooden dummy.
Although it was only demonstrated once Tony was able to remember everything he saw in total recall as he closed his eyes. Imagining the procedure that Ip Man did, Tony hit the wooden dummy.
At first he was a little slow working through developing the muscle memory. However, by the second time he practiced each move he was already more than twice as fast than before.
Finishing the last move from the second set he lowered his hands and opened his eyes to the dummy in front. Turning around to go back to grab his broomstick he sees Ip Man nodding with a smile.
"Mr. Ip," says Tony bowing Ip Man.
"Hui Liang, you have talent," Ip Man mentions, "do you want to learn Wing Chun?"
Hearing this Tony bows even more lower in excitement, "Master Ip Man I'll be more than glad to learn from you."
Laughing mildly he says to him, "To start with, your form when you hit the dummy should be like this…" Showing a slight adjustment as he positions his hands.
Tony nods in attention seeing Ip Man demonstrates the correction. He then moves in front of the dummy to retry the correct hand position.
Nodding he said, "Good. Remember Hui Liang, Wing Chun is not only a martial art. Through the practice of Wing Chun you can understand how to balance your life. Using opportunity and circumstances to dictate the amount of energy in your technique."
And like this he followed the tutelage of Ip Man. For the first three month he wasn't taught any of the advanced techniques. But instead worked on the correct footwork stance, Sticking Hands and Sil Lim Tao.
Sil Lam Tao is the first of the hand forms of Wing Chun that teaches the basics of the martial arts.
And the goal of it is to allow the student to feel the energy that lies in the movement. Moreover teaches Tony the economy of motion and the protection of the centerline.
In a year of practicing Sil Lim Tao day and night he was able to drill the defensive blocks and offensive attacking hand movements into an everyday reflex.
Besides working at his Wing Chun at night Tony would also be piling through traditional chinese medicinal text.
Furthermore he was able to make a microscope from scratch that allowed him to examine the effects of the different medicinal properties on the human body.