Translator: dapotaturs
Release Date: 09/30/2023
Chapter 149: Cui Luoheng's Apology
After dinner in the evening, Cui Luoheng knocked on Su Bai's door. When Su Bai opened the door, he looked at him eagerly, opened his mouth, and finally called out, "Xiao Bai."
Su Bai raised an eyebrow upon seeing Cui Luoheng. This time, he didn't immediately let him in but asked, "What's up?"
Seeing that Su Bai didn't let him in as usual, Cui Luoheng also realized that Su Bai was indeed upset.
No matter how you looked at it, Su Bai had always taken great care of him. Whether it was his initial taste problem or issues during training, Su Bai had been very dedicated in helping him. When he had used the excuse of having poor mental resilience, Su Bai had genuinely consoled and guided him.
But now, after going in circles, it turned out that the claim of poor mental resilience was just a smokescreen.
Cui Luoheng had forgotten when he had started instinctively wanting to get closer to Su Bai, even if it was just to exchange a few words.
He had never considered matters of the heart from childhood to adulthood. Or rather, in the environment of a sports school and track and field team, his natural talent was good, and he wanted to achieve better results. So from his youth to the present, his mind had always been focused on training.
Moreover, before he met Su Bai, he had never had a proper meal. He trained tirelessly every day, and his taste buds were troubled, to the point that he felt like his whole body was covered in thorns. He was constantly irritable. In that state, he couldn't possibly have had the mindset for anything else.
Until he met Su Bai.
The day Su Bai took over the kitchen was the most enjoyable day he had ever had since joining the S Province Track and Field Team. He had enjoyed his meal so much that he even went against his usual character and approached when Qiu Wen asked about supper.
After that, Su Bai pulled him out of his emotional low and helped him find his direction and hope on the 110-meter track, which had been buried under self-blame and heavy pressure.
After that, he followed Su Bai step by step, moving from the S Province Track and Field Team to the national team, and gradually stepping onto the stage of the Asian Games and Asian Championships.
While he was growing, he didn't realize when his feelings for Su Bai began to change.
He had never thought about what was different about his feelings for Su Bai. It was an unconscious desire to get closer. He started using the lame excuse of "poor mental resilience" to talk to Su Bai more and receive a different kind of care. He used this excuse without stopping, solely focusing on using it to talk to Su Bai.
Standing in front of Su Bai's door, Cui Luoheng analyzed these thoughts in his mind without expression. He hadn't thought about this direction before. Maybe he hadn't thought of it, or maybe he didn't dare to.
It wasn't until Wang Shen asked him that question – 【Why do you always want to be near Xiao Bai?】 – that he finally recognized his feelings. He liked Su Bai.
Even after realizing this, Cui Luoheng couldn't overcome his inability to express himself. He could only silently gaze at Su Bai, his tall stature of over 1.9 meters, looking a bit helpless and distressed with his head down.
Seeing Cui Luoheng like this, Su Bai sighed and let him into the room. Cui Luoheng's eyes lit up, and he immediately followed.
If he had a tail, it would probably be wagging right now.
Thinking about this, Su Bai led him to the sofa in the living room, had him sit down, and took a seat on a nearby chair.
"Speak up, what's on your mind?"
In fact, upon seeing Cui Luoheng's demeanor, Su Bai had already guessed his intentions. When he saw Cui Luoheng's pre-competition data and psychological dynamics during the game, Su Bai understood. Cui Luoheng had a strong desire to win in competitions, and he was not afraid of challenges.
Even when he went to Jamaica for the first time, participating in a competition he had never been in before, facing world-class athletes, he did not show fear. Instead, he was filled with anticipation and nervousness.
For a truly mentally fragile athlete, this was not something they could achieve with thorough pre-competition data preparation alone.
Recalling Cui Luoheng's previous competitions, in fact, his performance had always been excellent. The only time a potential psychological cognitive issue could have arisen was during the Asian Championships final when Cui Luoheng's skill was significantly superior to the other competitors. This led to a slight deviation in his perception of the competition.
Apart from that, there were no other issues.
Su Bai couldn't understand why Cui Luoheng had consistently used the excuse of poor mental resilience. Using this excuse only served the purpose of making Su Bai provide more psychological counseling and pre-competition mental preparation for him. There didn't seem to be any other use for it.
"Sorry," Cui Luoheng looked at Su Bai with hopeful eyes. His gaze was fixed on Su Bai but he couldn't bring himself to express his true feelings.
Seeing Cui Luoheng's pitiful appearance, Su Bai sighed and said, "Alright, I understand. It's okay."
That day, when Su Bai had realized Cui Luoheng's competition status, he had been briefly angry. However, he soon realized that there wasn't much to be angry about. While Cui Luoheng's lie had made him do some unnecessary work, Su Bai understood that his momentary anger had stemmed from Cui Luoheng's dishonesty, not from believing in his lie.
Su Bai couldn't come up with a logical answer to why he had felt that momentary anger, so he decided to set the issue aside. He thought it would be better to focus more on the relay team's training work.
Of course, Cui Luoheng's actions needed to be addressed, and Su Bai was prepared to give him extra training and educate him so he wouldn't make unfounded claims about training and mental states in the future.
However, Su Bai's seemingly indifferent attitude toward the matter made Cui Luoheng feel even colder inside. Even the hope that had previously been visible in his eyes dimmed. Despite never having been in a romantic relationship, Cui Luoheng had a vague understanding that if Su Bai felt differently about him, he wouldn't be so easily dismissive.
This perception left Cui Luoheng frozen in place. He was even more afraid to voice his true feelings to Su Bai. He feared that if he said the word "like" to Su Bai, Su Bai would completely transfer him to Coach Lu's hands, and he would no longer have any excuses to train under Su Bai or to engage in technical discussions and relevant competitions with Su Bai in the future.
Seeing that Cui Luoheng seemed a bit downcast, Su Bai habitually rubbed his head and said, "Alright, it's not a big deal. In the future, be honest with the coach. Don't look for problems when there are none, and don't be afraid to speak up when there are issues."
Su Bai said these words from a coach's standpoint, forgiving Cui Luoheng and reassuring him to put his mind at ease.
However, even though Cui Luoheng allowed Su Bai to rub his head while keeping his head lowered, he also clearly understood that, at this moment, Su Bai didn't have any feelings for him beyond that of a coach.
Until he left Su Bai's room, Cui Luoheng remained expressionless and appeared somewhat dazed.
During this afternoon and evening, Cui Luoheng had finally realized, under Wang Shen's hints, that he liked Su Bai. However, after apologizing to Su Bai in the evening, he felt dejected once again when he realized that, at least for now, Su Bai treated him no differently from Wang Shen, Qiu Wen, Zhang Ziyi, or any other teammate.
When he returned to the dormitory in the evening, Cui Luoheng couldn't shake off this feeling of dejection. So much so that when Lu Mengfan saw him, he asked him with concern what was wrong.
"Nothing," Cui Luoheng replied.
Cui Luoheng's expressionless face twitched slightly. He couldn't just say, "I've fallen for Su Bai and want to pursue my coach," could he? With Su Bai's current importance to the track and field team, Cui Luoheng felt that the Athletics Management Center might immediately issue an isolation order to keep him from bothering Su Bai, effectively separating them.
With these thoughts in mind, Cui Luoheng realized that if he wanted to catch up to Su Bai, he needed to have a significant role within the track and field team. He could only qualify to be close to Su Bai if he possessed stronger skills and achieved irreplaceable results.
After this realization, Cui Luoheng pursed his lips and began to consider his current training progress and the upcoming 110-meter hurdles events.
Originally, Cui Luoheng pursued victory solely out of a simple desire for success and the thrill of pushing his limits. However, from this moment forward, he had an additional, highly significant reason to strive for faster and stronger performance.
The next day, when Wang Shen came to discuss their upcoming training plan with Su Bai, he deliberately glanced at both Cui Luoheng and Su Bai and noticed that their relationship remained peaceful.
Seeing this, he looked at Cui Luoheng, who appeared expressionless but was certainly not in a great mood.
Then, Wang Shen raised an eyebrow with a playful expression, approached Su Bai with a cheerful demeanor, and made an effort to get closer to him than usual during their conversation.
Wang Shen, a high jumper, was originally a tall guy at around 1.9 meters. His appearance was so captivating that even entertainment companies were interested in signing him. Now, he deliberately got close to Su Bai, bringing them into an intimate distance. From a distance, their interaction appeared somewhat ambiguous.
Upon witnessing this, Cui Luoheng's rationality suddenly snapped, and before he could think twice, he reached out and patted Wang Shen's shoulder.
"Huh?" Su Bai looked at Cui Luoheng, who had suddenly approached them, with a puzzled expression. "ALuo, what's going on?"
Cui Luoheng cleared his throat and said, "I need to talk to Wang Shen."
"Uh-huh?" Su Bai raised an eyebrow skeptically and gave him a disapproving look. "Aren't your training sets still incomplete? I haven't finished talking to Wang Shen here either. If you guys have something to discuss, wait until training is over."
With that, Cui Luoheng was sent back to the training equipment by Su Bai.
Turning his head, Cui Luoheng saw Wang Shen giving him a smile. Instantly, the normally expressionless Cui Luoheng was now shrouded in a cloud of pent-up anger.
...Seriously, he was really irritated!
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Chapter 150: Relay Team Departure
Ever since Cui Luoheng had come to terms with his feelings, there were many times when he appeared emotionless but seemed shrouded in a low-pressure atmosphere.
For instance, when Wang Shen occasionally came to see Su Bai, he would smile and lean close to Su Bai, giving the appearance of a very intimate conversation.
Or when Qiu Wen approached Su Bai, crying and shouting that he wanted to eat snack made by Xiao Bai.
However, in the face of these two people, Cui Luoheng couldn't say anything. The former was futile to speak about, and the latter was completely oblivious.
On two occasions, when Wang Shen came to find Su Bai, Qiu Wen also noticed and whispered to Cui Luoheng, "What's wrong with Lao Wang? Why has he been getting so close to Xiao Bai these days? He looks so cheerful."
Cui Luoheng glanced expressionlessly at Wang Shen and then at Qiu Wen. He furrowed his brows, took a deep breath, and continued to focus on his training.
However, just as Cui Luoheng had resumed training for barely two days, the World Athletics Relay Championships were about to begin. This time, Su Bai didn't let him go without supervision. Instead, he was going with the relay team as the head coach.
The relay race was scheduled to start on May 11th, and the track and field team was set to arrive in Yokohama, Japan, on May 9th. So, after training with Su Bai for only two days, Cui Luoheng watched as they packed their bags and left with the team.
On the day when the entire relay team departed for Yokohama, during warm-up laps, Wang Shen happened to pass by Cui Luoheng and smiled while patting his shoulder.
"It's a long journey ahead," Wang Shen said with a kind smile.
Cui Luoheng: "..."
Back in China, the online melon eater crowd were completely unaware of the recent "friendly" exchanges between the members of the track and field team who had just returned from their expedition to Jamaica.
During this time, people were more concerned about Olympic qualification spots than even the Athletics Management Center. There was a simple reason for this: just as the Athletics Management Center was concerned about track and field events due to their surging popularity, there was an even larger number of public accounts and analysts discussing these topics on the internet to capitalize on the trend.
Thanks to these analysts, topics that the netizens had not paid much attention to were thrust into the limelight. The World Athletics Relay Championships saw its popularity skyrocket with headlines like:
————【The Battle for Tokyo Olympic Spots Happens Now!】————【Analyzing Previous World Relay Championships and World Athletics Championships Relay Results to Predict the Difficulty for China in Securing Tokyo Olympic Relay Spots.】————【The Most Unpredictable Olympic Qualification – Men's and Women's 4x400m Relay. Will They Secure Their Olympic Spots?】
Within just two days of the conclusion of the Jamaica leg of the competition, the World Athletics Relay Championships were back in the spotlight. The frequency of these discussions might have seemed high, but track and field enthusiasts did not find it excessive. The young people who spent their time online were patriotic and didn't mind the high density of information regarding events that brought glory to the country. After all, on Weibo's trending topics, there were daily updates on entertainment and current events. Although track and field events were currently receiving more attention than before, they were still relatively minor in the vast world of the internet.
In any case, after seeing these messages, netizens began to compare China's performance with that of other world-class teams, and a sense of concern began to emerge.
For example, when people discussed the men's 4x400m relay race, just over half a month ago, everyone was thrilled about China's men's 4x400m relay team winning the gold medal at the Asian Championships!
You see, this was another record-breaking achievement for China's 4x400m relay team after the Asian Games. Before this relay team broke the national record, China's men's 4x400m relay national record was 3 minutes 3.66 seconds!
And now, what's the new record?
3 minutes 1.67 seconds!
That's an improvement of almost two seconds!
Isn't that amazing?
Asian Games silver, Asian Championships gold – they're at the top of Asia! It's incredibly impressive!
However, when you look at various data posted on the internet, just taking the data from the 2017 World Athletics Championships finals as an example, all the top three teams finished within 3 minutes. Among the top eight teams in the final, their final times were all around the 3-minute mark. Even the last-placed team in the final, France, finished with a time of 3 minutes 1.79 seconds, while the second-to-last team, Poland, had a time of 3 minutes 1.59 seconds.
_(:3)∠)_
Seeing this result, the previously optimistic spectators who believed that China would secure a top 8 spot and qualify for the Tokyo Olympics suddenly fell into an eerie silence.
Of course, there were those who raised questions: Wait, this is the result of the final, right? The preliminary rounds couldn't have been this intense, could they?
So, data experts immediately pulled up the results of the preliminary rounds from that year's World Championships.
In the preliminaries, three teams from different countries also finished within the 3-minute mark. The team with the worst result in the preliminaries had a time of 3 minutes 1.88 seconds.
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The initially confident onlookers and the new athletics fans who were still getting the hang of the data analysis were left dumbfounded after seeing these results.
Even the worst-performing team in the preliminaries had a time of 3 minutes 1.88 seconds?
China's time of 3 minutes 1.67 seconds was hard-earned, considering it broke the national record!
Moreover, anyone who watched the 4x400m relay final at the Asian Championships knows that Zhang Ziyi gave it his all in that race. According to post-race data analysis, Zhang Ziyi's performance in the first leg of that relay was even better than his individual 400-meter race time.
After Zhang Ziyi, athletes like Qiu Wen, Guo Dun, and Li Junhao had given their all to achieve such a result. Even the spectators who simply watched the competition on TV or online couldn't casually say, "Let's aim for a 3 minutes 1.67 seconds" after seeing how challenging it was.
Watching the men's 4x400 meters relay, which had recently won the gold medal at the Asian Championships, appear so perilous, and considering the 4x100 meters, 4x200 meters, and mixed 4x400 meters relay teams, it became even more nerve-wracking.
Due to the current popularity of track and field events, the national team encountered a group of reporters at the airport who were there to interview them for the World Athletics Relay Championships. These reporters had already familiarized themselves with the appearances of all the sprint team members and coaches. Initially, they were planning to interview them first, especially since Coach Pei Jin'an, as well as star athletes like Fang Yu and Zhang Ziyi, were expected to be present. However, when Qiu Wen got off the bus, a sharp-eyed reporter shouted, "Look! Isn't that Su Bai?"
Su Bai?
Everyone turned their heads in the direction the reporter was pointing. Indeed, wasn't that Su Bai, with his fair and clean appearance? At his age and with his distinctive looks, he was quite easy to recognize.
Besides, which reporter dared not to remember Su Bai's appearance?
Immediately, the reporters changed their direction, ready to focus their interview efforts on Su Bai. They all remembered Su Bai's prophetic interviews from before and had been hoping for a chance to have him recreate his past brilliance. However, Su Bai rarely made public appearances. When they wanted to interview Su Bai, they had to prepare interview outlines and themes in advance and submit applications to the Athletics Center and the national team.
Of course, they were not unwilling to go the extra mile, but they were not a specialized sports channel or program. Conducting a sports feature was not within their usual scope. So when they got a chance to interview Su Bai during this airport encounter, it was considered quite a lucky break for them.
Soon after Su Bai and the others entered the airport, these reporters intercepted the track and field team, their faces filled with delight as if they had struck gold.
"Coach Pei, hello. Can you introduce the national team's goals for the World Athletics Relay Championships?"
"Coach Su, hello. Currently, there are many netizens discussing the performance of the national team in the 4x400-meter relay events and making comparisons with previous World Athletics Championships and World Championships relay finals. It appears that our team may not have the advantage, and it might not be easy to make it to the finals and secure a spot at the Tokyo Olympics. What is your opinion on this argument circulating among netizens?"
"Athletes like Fang Yu, Zhang Ziyi, and Qiu Wen are all stars in their respective individual events. However, this time, in order to secure a spot in the Tokyo Olympics relay, they have sacrificed some opportunities to compete in their individual events. Is this a loss, and could it affect their chances of qualifying for the World Championships and the Tokyo Olympics in their individual events?"
A series of questions were thrown at the national team members, but fortunately, these reporters were professionals, and they had their own unspoken rules when asking questions. Although it might have seemed chaotic at first glance, everyone managed to respond to these questions in an orderly manner.
"In this competition, our first goal is to secure a spot in all events at the World Championships..." Pei Jin'an smiled and brought up the topic of World Championships qualifications before mentioning the Tokyo Olympics. "Of course, we are also giving our all to compete for a spot at the Tokyo Olympics. The national team expects our athletes to perform brilliantly and give their all. I believe that each of our athletes is determined not to back down when it comes to qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics!"
Pei Jin'an grinned and circled around the question of the team's specific goals.
After Pei Jin'an and the athletes had answered a round of questions, the microphone was finally handed to Su Bai. In the expectant gaze of everyone present, Su Bai remained silent for a moment and then calmly stated the team's pre-competition goal, "In the 4x400-meter relay, we will give it our all and aim for second place or better."
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