57: If I had lost
On the way back to the athletes' hotel, Lin Miao realized that everyone had known of her injured hand from the close-up shot during her match's live broadcast.
She felt very awkward. She had only scraped her hand, but everyone was staring at her as if her hand was gone.
Having received so many compliments about it, Lin Miao's face uncontrollably flushed red, explaining, "It didn't hurt that much, nor did it really affect my match. I definitely wouldn't have continued the match if I had fractured it or anything bad like that."
Then, Lin Miao thought of something important.
She hurried to find her coach. She needed to call her parents and assure them that she was fine. If her teammates saw her accident on the live broadcast, then her parents had probably also seen it and were worried about her.
There was a landline in her hotel room, but they were still on their bus with some time until arrival.
As she had expected, Lin Miao heard a distressed voice when she called.
"Mom, I'm fine. It was just a scrape, I didn't hurt my bones," Lin Miao responded.
Relieved at the news, Lin Miao's mother asked when she was returning from the championships.
Lin Miao continued to soothe her, hanging up after a while.
She still had dinner in the hotel as she was afraid that outside food might have too great of a health impact.
After dinner, she returned to her room, finally able to call the Young Master.
The Young Master quickly picked up the call.
Lying on her bed and staring blankly at the ceiling, she found her older brother's voice oddly satisfying. The pain in her left hand was also long gone.
A question popped up in her head: Everyone seemed to think that she was a strong player by default. They would say that she was undefeatable, but she knew in her heart that she was nowhere near as good as that. Thinking about this, Lin Miao felt a bit anxious, so she asked the Young Master, "Gege, Gege, what if I lose someday?"
"Hm?" The Young Master's voice was very pleasant.
"I heard people say," Lin Miao then spoke in that person's manner, "Brother Shui is so good, she had never lost a game since she entered competitive badminton. She could probably eye for gold in the Olympics next year!"
When Lin Miao heard this, the entirety of her wanted to explain that she wasn't that great, and that everyone overestimated her.
Lin Miao didn't care about losing before. She would only focus on playing her best in the games, but now, she felt that it would be quite embarrassing if she lost a game.
The Young Master looked up at the ceiling of his room, responding, "Then win it back next time."
Lin Miao blinked, the Young Master had a point. "Yes, there are so many competitions, and I can't win all of them. If someone beats me, I'll just win against them the next time we get paired together."
The next day, Lin Miao headed to the hotel's lobby in the wake of dawn to try the diverse range of breakfasts.
Lin Miao quietly took a plate.
I've never had this before, let's get one.
That simply looks delicious, I'll have that...
With her plate full, she began to slowly savor the delights in a corner of the hall.
Shortly after, someone took a seat beside her, calling her name in an unusual tone, "Shui Ge..."
(The author used 睡阁 for Shui Ge, which shares the same pinyin letters for brother Shui. Translated literally, what this person is saying is a small bedroom. It is pronounced with the fourth and second tones, a slight deviation from the third and first tones one would usually pronounce Shui Ge for brother Shui)
Lin Miao lifted her head, seeing a light skinned, green-eyed, blond teenager. She only realized that they were calling her by her nickname, brother Shui.
Lin Miao was stunned by his beauty. How could there be someone so pretty in this world! Compared to Gege, he's only a bit off.
The teenager sat down beside her.
Lin Miao wasn't going back with the Young Master-she had to stick with her team.
So, when the Young Master's mother got a picture of Lin Miao eating at the hotel hall, she immediately showed it to her son.
The teenager in the picture was a professional diver from the US. He had a sweet mouth and crowds of fans.
He uploaded a picture to his Facebook. The happily-smiling people looked as if they were pulled out of an oil painting.
The Young Master's mother smiled, "Shuishui is so adorable. It would also be pretty nice if she married a foreigner and gave birth to a multiracial baby."
The Young Master silently turned to look at the picture.
Lin Miao gained a lot of attention from the badminton finals. Now, this picture immediately conquered all those fans who judged by appearance.
Lin Miao was met with many enthusiasts' bouquets when she disembarked from her plane.
She carried the armloads of flowers all back to her school dorm room.
Tan Jing was waiting for her in the room. She pitied her injuries and irresistibly ran her hand over Lin Miao's gold medal. "Brother Shui, you're so good. You still won despite injuring your hand."
The participants of the world championships were selected through a point system. Tan Jing didn't go through the same path as Lin Miao, so she didn't have enough points, and therefore didn't qualify for the badminton championship.
However, she was not demoralized at all. Only four Chinese athletes qualified anyways.
She wanted to build up her points like Lin Miao had through international tournaments for the next world championships.
She would have two years of preparation as the Olympics were next year. The championships would be postponed to make way for the Olympics.
Lin Miao was suffering from jetlag, so she quickly went to sleep.
Without time to check her phone, she was unconscious that she was now someone in two CPs.
(T/N: CP is short for couples. It is basically the chinese equivalent of shipping. If you say person a and b are a CP, you are saying that you want them to go together.)
It started with the netizen who bypassed the great firewall, saved and shared the picture of the two gifted athletes. They mentioned that they were perfect matches.
Some people commented that Jason, the American diver at the championships, was a real genius because he was only sixteen.
On the other hand, Lin Miao was young, pretty, and very successful. Even though she didn't have much of a name abroad, the sports fans all knew her inside out.
They naturally recommended her to other people, unlike those outside of the sports circle.
Those outside the circle only saw her success at the world championships. The old, loyal fans, however, started following her since the buzz in the French Badminton Supercup; they had followed her all along.
Some even dug up recordings of her old domestic competitions, embellishing Lin Miao when introducing her to others.
"Our Brother Shui had never lost a game. Starting out at nine, from regionals to nationals, and now nationals to internationals. She has won them all."
"Here's a video of brother Shui's match when she was little [Video], a recording of her during the trophy ceremony [Video], and an interview [Video].
They also took this opportunity to spread her name across the internet.
There was a small group of these people with some footage who started spreading JingShui CP.
(T/N: CP between Tan Jing and Shuishui or Lin Miao)
Completely unaware of this, Lin Miao returned to her normal life the day after, practicing at her school.
Her coach had recommended her to rest as her left hand was still healing, but since Lin Miao didn't think that it would affect her, she continued to practice.
.....